Introduction
As a healthcare facility, we strive to improve healthcare outcomes and always aim at ensuring that the strategy we follow is the most effective one. Unfortunately, there is an extended number of factors that can undermine the outcomes we expect, making it extremely challenging to adequately care about the patients and address all their needs. The rates and complications of numerous diseases increase, national goals change, chronic health conditions deteriorate, health-related risk behaviors alter, and adherence to the use of preventive services reduces. These are just some issues that medical personnel have to address, which highlights healthcare workers’ need to stay informed and aware. Consequently, our strategic planning should constantly correspond with the current healthcare trends, which is why various reliable and government resources on behavior and health should be utilized. Some such sources of information and their efficiency are discussed in this memo.
Background
To begin with, before exploring each resource in detail, it is essential to provide some background information about the role of trustworthy data in the preparation of future strategies and their adaptation to current needs of the community. Overall, it is stated that “strategic planning in health care organizations involves outlining the actionable steps needed to reach specific goals” (“Understanding Strategic Planning in Healthcare Organizations,” 2021, para. 1). These goals should not only align with our facility’s mission and objectives but also refer to current trends, nationwide health issues, and local health improvement aims. Consequently, without using government and other credible sources of information, it is almost impossible for us to make sure that the strategy we choose to pursue is relevant.
Details
Generally, the following websites are considered to be informative, relevant, and trustworthy enough to impact the identification of our facility’s future strategy. Some of them belong to reliable national organizations like America’s Health Rankings and Trust for America’s Health. Others are government websites, such as Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. These sources provide information on the rates of various diseases, patients’ behaviors, recommendations on how to address them, national goals, and many other useful facts.
America’s Health Rankings
To begin with, this resource is quite helpful and appropriate for getting information about economic and social factors, health outcomes, physical environment, and clinical care data. For instance, it is possible to find a state-by-state detailed analysis of our nation’s health, involving teen suicide rates, frequent mental distresses, and obesity prevalence (“Reliable Data,” 2022). When creating our strategy, we as an organization can get acquainted with information about every state. Additionally, resources like measures in senior health, COVID-19 vaccinations rates, factors reducing the quality of clinical care, and many other useful data can inform decision-making and goal-setting in strategy planning (“Reliable data,” 2022). As a result, we are actually interested in using this website if our purpose is to correlate with the nation’s state and participate in its improvement.
County Health Rankings
This is the second reliable and beneficial source with a specific purpose. It illustrates how numerous factors unite and can either positively or adversely affect people’s lives. Consequently, we can use this source to identify how precisely we as a healthcare facility may improve our actions to eliminate unjust barriers and contribute to the country’s health enhancement (“A Just Recovery to Achieve Economic Security and Health for All,” 2022). For instance, without using this website during the determination of our contribution, we can put an emphasis on an already upgraded and improved area, not focusing on something truly crucial. Thus, it is recommended to align one’s efforts with their “What Works for Health Curated Strategy Lists,” and this organization also has appropriate strategies divided by topic (“A Just Recovery,” 2022). For example, we can choose to enhance access to care or its quality, contribute to tobacco, alcohol, and drug use reduction, and find information on how we can promote healthy and risk-free sexual activity.
Trust for America’s Health
Further, when we need to back up or justify our new strategy with relevant and trustworthy research, we can refer to this website. According to specialists, “the publication and amplification of research on programs and policies that support health and well-being” is central to their mission (“Reports,” 2022). This source can provide us with “rates of deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic,” list the best policies for obesity-free U.S., or describe “the impact of chronic underfunding on America’s public health system” (“Reports,” 2022). In other words, this website is of great value because it combines reports and relevant articles on the most required topics, allowing us not to conduct our own extended research when defining goals and strategies.
Healthy People 2030
This is one of the main American initiatives aimed at improving the nation’s health outcomes and experiences and eliminating barriers that strengthen inequality, discrimination, and reduced access to medical services. It is impossible to imagine how any healthcare facility’s strategy and values can be defined without referring to Health People 2030 goals (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2022). This website contains links to objectives and data, tools for action, and priority areas, which may be extremely helpful when upgrading the existing methods so that they are relevant and practical. The measurable Health People 2030 objectives can be included in the new strategy to make it more effective, and this website can also help understand how to contribute to the elimination of the negative effects of social determinants of health.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
The following three sources are from the same website – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The value and helpfulness of this resource cannot be overestimated because the amount of credible information it contains is even impossible to imagine. For instance, the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report refers to numerous topics, including “Summary of Guidance for Minimizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Individual Persons, Communities, and Health Care Systems” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022c). The latter is of special importance for every healthcare facility, and we can adopt some of the identified tools and measures.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Monkeypox in the U.S.
Further, this is a rather interesting article presented on the CDC’s website. I consider it vital for every healthcare organization to stay informed about any newly emerging threat. Consequently, when using this resource, we get an easy access to all Monkeypox topics and latest updates, receiving an opportunity to react more efficiently and successfully (CDC, 2022b). Overall, there is no need for us to research the topic’s points separately when everything related to the health concern is present on the same trustworthy resource.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Finally, the last helpful health and behavior source to be observed in this memorandum is also presented by CDC. In my opinion, this is an extremely helpful and insightful health-related telephone surveys system. According to the website, it collects “state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services” (CDC, 2022a). As a result, we can use this database to get acquainted with current trends in people’s behaviors and attitudes and react to their reduced adherence to preventive and treatment measures in a timely manner. In other words, we can learn about this trend nationwide, assume that our patients also lose motivation or resources to take care about their health, and take steps to fix the problem.
Conclusion
To draw a conclusion, I may say that the resources I identified and explored above are actually reliable, detailed, structured, and useful for various purposes. Thus, when preparing our strategies and adjusting healthcare goals, we can study the provided information on health gaps in our community. Surely, it is better to address them than focusing on areas that have already been improved. Furthermore, several websites also contain readily-prepared strategies aimed at improving patients’ experiences, making clinical care quality higher, spreading correct diet and exercise rules among persons, and achieving numerous other beneficial and valuable purposes. Consequently, I may add that it is always better to make an informed contribution to common efforts, which is why I strongly recommend that every strategy planning or review is based on facts, data, and information obtained from the listed websites.
References
A just recovery to achieve economic security and health for all. (2022). County Health Rankings.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022a). Behavioral risk factor surveillance system.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022b). Monkeypox in the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022c). Morbidity and mortality weekly report.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2022). Healthy People 2030.
Reliable data. (2022). America’s Health Rankings.
Reports. (2022). Trust for America’s Health.
Understanding strategic planning in healthcare organizations. (2021). Regis College.