Increase the proportion of tribal communities that have a health improvement plan — PHI‑08 Data Methodology and Measurement

The National Indian Health Board (NIHB), through partnership and support from a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) completed the Public Health in Indian Country Capacity Scan (PHICCS) to describe the current state of public health services as a valuable tool for Indian Country to identify needs and strengths of Tribal public health to measure progress over time, to allocate staff and resources where they are most needed, and to provide data for decision making related to infrastructure, programs, and resources for the system overall.

The PHICCS questionnaire included 129 questions of various types, aimed at collecting information on the overall capacity of the public health system and infrastructure in Indian Country. The questions are themed and categorized according to five key areas: Tribal public health authority, Tribal public health activities, Tribal public health assessment, performance improvement and accreditation activities, Tribal public healh workforce, and Tribal public health priorities and needs.

A critical aspect of public health infrastructure assessment is monitoring the status of health improvement plans at the State, territorial, local and Tribal levels. The PHICCS survey used the same question language for and definition of “health improvement plan” as did surveys to state, local, and territorial health departments, so that this is defined in a consistent way: “A health improvement plan is a long-term, systematic effort to address health problems on the basis of the results of a community needs assessment. This plan is used by health and other governmental education and human service agencies, in collaboration with community partners, to set priorities and coordinate and target resources.”

Tribal health organizations that responded “yes within the past five years” to the survey question were counted in the numerator. The denominator is determined by the number of respondents to this item of the survey.