Background and Need Identification
The Georgia Department of Public Health represents an independent state-level healthcare agency in the State of Georgia (Georgia DPH, n.d.). For the key historical changes, thanks to the General Assembly’s decision, the Georgia DPH (n.d.) gained independence as a state agency in 2011. In terms of growth, in 2017, it applied for national-level healthcare accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation (PHA) board and currently provides funding for more than 150 county-level departments (Georgia DPH, n.d.). Based on the 2022-2025 development plan, some high-priority current initiatives include increasing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) awareness, establishing cancer-specific state aid resources, and transitioning to cloud computing (Georgia DPH, 2022).
One need within the organization pertains to addressing pregnancy health outcomes as part of the Maternity and Infant Health task. As for its organizational impacts, the state’s increased prevalence of pregnancy-associated deaths makes the agency allocate funds to relevant research, including establishing the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) (Georgia DPH, 2022). The need affects the organization’s disease prevention purposes and influences the quality of preventive care provided to female Georgians of childbearing age and their health outcomes. Specifically, the MMRC’s data demonstrate that more than 85% of pregnancy-associated deaths in Georgia’s healthcare organizations are preventable (Georgia DPH, 2022). The need’s influence on the greater healthcare environment is enormous. Specifically, elevated maternal mortality rates can be indicative of systemic deficiencies in preventive care.
Addressing the Need and Guideline/Policy Implementation
My plan to assist the agency in addressing the need revolves around reducing the incidence of maternal mortality by promoting the early identification of patients of childbearing age that might have high-risk pregnancies. One way to achieve it is by popularizing pre-pregnancy health assessments that enable women to make informed decisions on proceeding with getting pregnant or implementing the necessary lifestyle corrections as early as possible. The MMRC data indicate that diseases of the cardiovascular system are crucial contributors to maternal deaths in Georgia (Georgia DPH, 2022). The proposed initiative involves conducting a statewide health awareness campaign in Georgia to encourage women to get preconception health checkups and receive personalized heart health recommendations.
The campaign will incorporate disseminating handouts and an informational web page among female healthcare service users of reproductive age. A handout with maternal disease trends and arguments for seeking professional guidance prior to conceiving will be created, and all healthcare organizations in the state will be encouraged to distribute it among patients that might get pregnant. The agency will also create an informational resource for patients of reproductive age, link it where possible, and make it distributed on social media. Searching the Health.gov website, I found the Health Literacy Online resource devoted to detailed guidelines on creating public education materials (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2016). The information in Part 3 of the guide includes using plain language, appropriate paragraph length, readable fonts, and emphasizing the right elements. It will affect the project by outlining the principles to inform online resource creation and achieve readability.
References
Georgia DPH. (2022). 2022-2025 strategic plan.
Georgia DPH. (n.d). About DPH.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2016). Health Literacy Online: A guide for simplifying the user experience.