Local health department officials are honing in on a handful of goals to help serve the county as efficiently as possible.
During the most recent Board of Health meeting, Accreditation Coordinator Tim Kelley and Deputy Director of Health Promotion and Planning Elizabeth Fries shared a presentation surrounding the development of an updated strategic plan for the agency.
Ultimately, Kelley said internal research and focus groups resulted in four major goals for the Union County Health Department.
They include: addressing rapid growth in the area and its impact on services provided by UCHD, the changing relationship between the government and health departments, the effect of the current labor market and modernization both of technology and other systems.
Kelley explained that the process began with a survey of staff and board members to “distill (their) main thoughts” regarding the mission and vision of the health department.
He said the overwhelming majority of respondents agreed with both, and only minor adjustments were made.
From there, Kelley said focus groups were hosted in an effort to establish the values of UCHD. Based on feedback, the values of the health department were divided into two categories: culture and service.
Kelley said each division of the health department also participated in a “SOAR survey,” through which staff members express their feelings regarding strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results.
The leadership team also engaged in an “environmental scan,” which Kelley said allowed staff to answer questions surrounding workforce development, how the health department is perceived by the community it serves and implementation of policies.
Once information was gathered and distilled to create the four strategic goals, Fries said the aim was to “tease out actions.”
However, Fries said she and Kelley realized that they were not quite ready to establish an action plan.
“We just don’t know enough to be able to act yet,” she told the board.
In order to bolster their knowledge, Fries said four “think tanks” were created.
Each think tank, which correspond to the strategic goals, consists of four to seven staff members who are charged with information gathering over the next three months, Fries explained.
Fries said the goal is that each group will gather information throughout the month of October, formulate “insights” in November and ultimately, in December, recommend a strategy to achieve their goal.
Using the data and insights shared by the think tanks, Fries said UCHD should have an “informed strategy” that reflects what the team has learned and what leadership feels is important to the agency.
Fries added that a new six-year strategic plan should be completed in January. It will also include a performance management plan, which allows the health department to check how well they are achieving the goals set out for themselves.
By February 2023, she said the plan will be being implemented.
Fries acknowledged that it is a “pretty aggressive timeline,” but said she feels confident it can be adhered to based on the foundation that has been set.
Board President Keith Watson said he appreciates the work done by Kelley, Fries and participating staff members, adding that he feels narrowing the strategic goals down to four defined issues will set them up to achieve them successfully.