The Arizona Health Improvement Plan (AzHIP) Steering Committee, an advisory group of 20 statewide leaders (which I’m fortunate to co-chair), met last week to discuss progress on the working draft for the AzHIP and Arizona’s leading health priorities. As a refresher, the purpose of the Arizona Health Improvement Plan is to move the dial on important health outcomes. The priorities were chosen based on the data provided in the State Health Assessment (SHA) which was completed in early 2014. And of course, it takes more than just ADHS to make this kind of impact. We’re joined by our partners in state and local government, health care, the business community, stakeholder groups, universities and schools, the Governor’s Office, and others, to improve the overall health of Arizonans.
At the meeting, workgroup co-chairs presented updates to the committee on development of overall dashboards goals and high-impact evidence-based strategies. The committee provided valuable feedback to share with workgroup members at their meetings that will take place throughout the fall. The next steps for the workgroups which involve more than 300 participants, is to refine the tactics and action items for the working draft of the AzHIP. Our target for publishing the AzHIP is sometime in the next six months.
You might wonder how this is different from the ADHS Strategic Plan we’re currently rolling out to all the divisions. Good question! While the AzHIP is focused on the statewide public health system, the ADHS Strategic Plan is focused specifically on the priority goals for our agency. It details not only our work to advance the public health system in Arizona, but the specific actions we take internally to ensure that ADHS is highly efficient and effective in delivering on our ADHS Mission and Vision. The ADHS Strategic Plan, the State Health Assessment (SHA), and the Arizona State Health Improvement Plan (AzHIP) are all important components of a comprehensive approach to achieving our goals and are consequently, all prerequisites for Public Health Accreditation.
Good information on the difference and the similarities between the ADHS Strategic Plan and also this AzHIP initiative – it is important to set ideas out clearly and make sure that overall aim of the programs are clearly communicated. It helps that organisations and individuals are working together and collaborating. Nothing harms initiatives more than people working in silos, redoing work, and failing to work together productively.