View the complete Standards and Measures Information for Domain 9 [pdf]

Domain 9 focuses on the use and integration of performance management and quality improvement practices and processes for the continuous improvement of the public health department’s practices, programs, and interventions.

Performance management identifies actual results against planned or intended results. Performance management systems ensure that progress is being made toward department goals by systematically collecting and analyzing data to track results to identify opportunities and targets for improvement.

Quality improvement is an element of performance management that uses processes to address specific targets for effectiveness and efficiency. “Quality improvement in public health is the use of a deliberate and defined improvement process that is focused on activities that are responsive to community needs and improving population health. It refers to a continuous and ongoing effort to achieve measurable improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, performance, accountability, outcomes, and other indicators of quality in services or processes which achieve equity and improve the health of the community.” (Riley, Moran, Corso, Beitsch, Bialek, and Cofsky. Defining Quality Improvement in Public Health. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. January/February 2010).