INTRODUCTION In Fall 2014, the Denver Public Health Strategic Planning Committee worked with staff and partners to develop the 2015-2017 Strategic Plan. From this plan, the annual 2015 implementation plan was created and progress was tracked monthly throughout the year. Overall, the department had a successful year and made great progress on the goals set forth in the 2015-2017 plan. In September 2015, the long-term and annual department plans were updated by the Strategic Planning Committee at a planning retreat. Progress on the 2015-2017 plan was acknowledged at the retreat and areas that were not on track were discussed and either deleted or incorporated into the 2016 plan. The following report provides details about the strategic plan and the main accomplishments from the 2015 plan. ABOUT THE PLAN The annual 2015 Department Plan has: 10 Goals 20 Strategies 64 Tactics (Activities) The plan addresses the priority areas of the 2015-2017 Strategic Plan, which are the same as the Denver Health pillars: Community and Population Health Insurance Coverage and Preventive Services Workforce Engagement Financial Strength Customer Experience Quality Improvement and Patient Safety ACCOMPLISHMENTS The graph represents the cumulative progress made on the 64 tactics (activities) listed in the 2015 plan. Goal 1: Improve the health of Denver residents and reduce health inequities (Community and Population Health Pillar) Established a Denver Public Health Policy Committee. Established relationships to coordinate policy initiatives across the Denver metro area and through the Policy Committee of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials. 1
Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) Obtained funding for a metro-wide effort to decrease consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Awarded about $3 million for the Metro Healthy Beverage Partnership to implement healthy food and beverage vending and adopt healthy food and beverage procurement policies in seven Denver Metro counties (creating approximately three new FTEs to work on HEAL). Achieved Silver Status of the Colorado Healthy Hospital Compact at Denver Health. Tobacco Screened more than 600,000 patient visits for Tobacco Use and Secondhand Smoke Exposure. Achieved at least 25 sustainable systems changes within Denver Health for implementing Ask, Advise, and Refer into the Electronic Medical Record. Opened a second Tobacco Cessation Clinic within the Denver Health system. Contributed to a decrease in Denver Health patient smoking rates from 24.6% (October, 2013) to 23.2% (March, 2015), a reduction of 1.4 percentage points (approximately 680 patients) representing an overall rate reduction of 5.7%. Protected more than 50,000 multi-unit Denver residents from secondhand smoke exposure due to Smoke-Free policy implementation. Hosted a first-ever Smoke-Free Multi-unit Housing Summit for 55 housing providers and 18 local health department staff. Increased our professional networks in housing through intentional partnerships with HUD s Region 8 Healthy Housing representative, CHFA Reach (educational organization for housing providers), and expanding the partnership with Denver Housing. Awarded and started three new Amendment 35 tobacco grants for a total of $1,011,651 per year for three years. Formed the Denver Health Tobacco Free Oversight and Accountability Committee to increase awareness and enforcement to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke on Denver Health campuses. Obtained the support of the Denver Health Board of Directors for two key tobacco policy initiatives: increasing the state tobacco tax and increasing the age of purchase to 21. Promoted tobacco cessation, including Denver Health s internal cessation services, via the Great American Smokeout in November. Goal 2: Continually assess and respond to community needs (Community and Population Health Pillar) Completed a comprehensive community health assessment (2014 Health of Denver Report). Published six issues of Denver Vital Signs with an open rate consistently higher than the industry average of 24 percent. Published two new health indicator reports: one on active rates of tuberculosis in the Denver Metro area and one on childhood obesity rates. Published website content about the Colorado Health Observation Regional Data Service. Completed an environmental scan for web-based health information sharing. 2
Generated reports of health conditions in Denver's 11 council districts. Goal 3: Provide clear, consistent communication about public health (Community and Population Health Pillar) Piloted "Rethink Your Drink" public education campaign in 260 patient waiting rooms at Denver Health, through radio and social media advertisements and via a direct mail campaign targeting parents of Latino youth ages 0-6 years old. Secured funding from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to lead the execution of a regional, three-year HPV vaccine public information campaign. Implemented "Denver Brings it Up" HIV prevention public information campaign to educate the men who have sex with men community about the importance of testing, treatment and risk reduction (i.e. PrEP) tools to reduce HIV s impact in Denver. Proactively pitched at least one news story each quarter, significantly increasing media coverage received in 2015. The total number of placements tracked increased by at least 100 percent over 2014. Executed 2014 National Public Health Week campaign to promote the role of public health in Denver. Tactics included developing a collaborative video with Denver Environmental Health that was shared via websites and social media. Continued to grow social media networks via Twitter and Facebook, consistency increasing monthly followers/likes month-over-month. Provided 24/7 monitoring and response to urgent messages submitted via these channels. Held three Public Health Grand Round lectures to engage the Denver community. Goal 4: Improve Denver Public Health effectiveness (Community and Population Health Pillar) Hired a Policy and Partnership Coordinator. Hired additional support staff for physicians, clinic administrators, and program areas. Shared updates with staff via the new Denver Public Health Matters bi-weekly newsletter. Developed a campaign to end AIDS under the leadership of a new Director of HIV Prevention. Strengthened our partnership with other metro-area public health departments through collaborative grants to foster health beverage consumption, increase HPV vaccination, and decrease stigma and improve mental health services across the Denver-Boulder metro area. Goal 5: Improve access to health care (Insurance Coverage and Preventive Services Pillar) Launched Mile-High Health Alliance as an independent entity with its own staff and operational and programmatic funding. There are now 27 full member organizations. 3
Established four active work groups within the Alliance: Access to Care, Specialty Care Access, Improving Care of High-Utilizer Patients, and Integrated Care. Obtained an initial grant from the Caring for Colorado Foundation to allow the Alliance to develop plans for a Specialty Care Access Hub; a second grant for the High-Utilizer group is pending at the Colorado Health Foundation. Goal 6: Improve preventive services in health care settings. (Insurance Coverage and Preventive Services Pillar) Obtained support from the Mayor and the Governor for a campaign launched in August 2015 to end AIDS in Denver and the entire state by 2030. Secured significant media coverage about the movement to inform the public about this initiative. Expanded the reach of ReThink Your Drink through clinics servicing low-income persons. Led a metro-wide effort to decrease cervical cancer by increasing HPV vaccination Developed and rapidly expanded a program for providing Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for persons at high risk of HIV infection. Obtained funding to provide case-based education to providers using the ECHO model Goal 7: Create a workplace culture of commitment, accountability, and engagement (Workforce Engagement Pillar) Held quarterly all-staff town hall meetings on the following topics: Master Facilities Plan, Strategic Plan, Accreditation and Internal Communications. Identified public health core competencies for the department and job-specific categories with the assistance of the Public Health Foundation. Revised the onboarding process for new Denver Public Health employees. Created and implemented six Denver Public Health new employee orientations. Launched new SharePoint/Pulse intranet site to serve as the news hub and collaborative workspace for the department. Goal 8: Provide sufficient financial resources to fulfill Denver Public Health s mission and strategies, while ensuring financial sustainability (Financial Strength Pillar) Generated more revenue than prior years in all clinics. 2015 was the first year that the STD and TB Clinics were able to bill all insurance types for the entire year. This resulted in significant savings on the monthly transfer to the Lab and Radiology. Submitted and obtained grant funding with two new Principal Investigators (PIs) in 2015. 4
Proposed and funded (by the City) a new Epidemiologist position starting in 2016. This position will be shared with Denver Environmental Health. Goal 9: Perfect the experience for every partner, customer, and patient that interacts with the department, every time in every setting (Customer Experience Pillar) Collected customer experience feedback in most program areas. Direct service areas consistently exceeded their target of 80 percent of patients saying they strongly agree that they were satisfied with their overall experience. Policy and Partnership Coordinator conducted interviews with key partners. Started a cross-departmental QI project to improve internal communications with one key partner. Implemented Studer Group initiatives (e.g., AIDET, leader rounding). Maintained a current external website via a minimum bi-monthly homepage updates, as well as new content and content revisions, as needed. Utilized a quality improvement tool to identify and fix any incorrect hyperlinks or misspellings on the website. Consistently reviewed and managed search engine optimization ranking of priority terms, ensuring 80 percent or higher appear in the top five results on Google. Goal 10: Continuous quality improvement throughout the department (Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Pillar) Completed Public Health Accreditation documentation submission and site visit. Funded two innovation grants: Video Directly Observed Therapy and Electronic Outreach Testing. Developed a quality improvement coaching matrix to capture QI tool expertise among quality committee members and champions. Developed and implemented a departmental SharePoint Plan. SharePoint Super Users met monthly and received quarterly training. Developed streamlined annual program plans for 2016. 5