The Nebraska public health system utilizes research to improve public health practice.

Why Is This Important?

The integration and utilization of health data by data users can be improved with a better understanding about what data are available and how to use them. Efforts to better inform data users and link data users with epidemiologist, analysts, and researches would likely result in better health planning and evaluation efforts and subsequently more effective public health practice and outcomes. Advancements in the use and exchange of health information through electronic health records will eventually provide an opportunity to better inform public health practice.

Story Behind the Curve

Nebraska SHIP Priority 5: The Nebraska public health system has expanded capacity to collect, analyze and report health data.

For this SHIP Priority, several activities were planned for implementation:

Update the list of public health data resources annually.
Increase the collaborative studies between public health practitioners and researchers.

Definition

This scorecard is created to track performance, therefore the demonstration of data (numerical and narrative) describes what we define as success. In some instances, a trend may be moving in the wrong direction, but still may be within our 'Target for Success' area. The use of Color Arrows (and sometimes also Color Bands) help to define the Target for Success and Current Progress.

Green, Black and Red color arrows are used to reflect our 'Current Progress' status.

GREEN Arrow = We're getting better!
BLACK Arrow = We're maintaining our position.
RED Arrow = We're going in the wrong direction.

Green, Yellow or Red color bands are used to reflect our 'Target for Success' zones.

GREEN Color Band = We've reached our Target for Success!
YELLOW Color Band = We're making progress, but not quite there yet.
RED Color Band = We're below our Target for Success.

Data is described with the Time Period, Actual Value, Target Value, Current Trend and Baseline Change %. These mean:

Time Period - The most current time period for which the data were available.
Actual Value - The actual level of achievement, the most current data point for the indicator; also shown in a Color Band to reflect if that value is or is not within our Target for Success zone.
Target Value - The desired level of achievement for the data indicator.
Current Trend - The direction of progress is shown by a Color Arrow to reflect our Current Progress status, and also noting for how many data points the direction been occurring.
Baseline Change % - The percentage of change between the baseline data point and the current data point (actual value); also shown with a Color Arrow to describe Current Progress status.

Clear Impact Suite is an easy-to-use, web-based software platform that helps your staff collaborate with external stakeholders and community partners by utilizing the combination of data collection, performance reporting, and program planning.