Support for this project ended in 2015 - Frontiers

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research is an open-access, rapid-response, peer-reviewed online journal offering brief, preliminary PHSSR findings from ongoing or recently completed empirical studies or quality improvement projects. Journal articles answer questions of importance regarding the organization, financing, and delivery of public health services; the structure, operation, and management of public health delivery systems; the application of quality improvement methods in public health settings; and/or the impact of these endeavors on population health. Findings must have the potential to guide future public health practice, health policy, and research. Frontiers is intended to provide quick access to actionable public health infrastructure research to improve public health practice at the state and local levels. It is of use to practitioners, policy makers and researchers.

February 21, 2016
Priscilla A. Barnes et al.

Background: As one of many organizations within a system of networks, numerous U.S. local health departments (LHDs) use partnerships as a structural intervention to address physical, mental, social concerns of women and infants.

February 21, 2016
Stephanie Noble et al.

Background: Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a framework requiring that the promotion of health be embedded in all substantive policy areas to have a comprehensive approach to the health and well-being of local citizens.

Purpose: To determine the extent to which the Bloomberg Administration in New York City used an HiAP approach to promote attention to health outcomes in peer agencies (outside the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene) within the city bureaucracy.

February 21, 2016
Charlotte S. Seidman

For the past year, the editors of Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research have been working toward several goals: to increase both author contributions and readership and to establish and meet the criteria that will allow Frontiers in PHSSR to be included in the main indexing services, thus increasing its value to both our authors and our readers.

November 16, 2015
Melanie D. Whittington et al.

Background. There is a gap in research regarding the resources needed to deliver public health activities, which inhibits informed decision making around investments in public health and the allocation of funds among activities. When conducting cost analyses in public health, it is important to include costs from all cost components, including personnel, non-personnel, and indirect costs. However, defining, identifying, and measuring indirect costs is challenging and can impede studies of this type. Purpose.

November 16, 2015
Madelyn P. Law et al.

Background: Quality Improvement (QI) approaches are used extensively in healthcare settings and increasingly in public health. However, the proliferation of QI in Canadian public health settings is unknown.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to (a) assess the QI maturity in Ontario local public health units in Canada, and (b) to determine the relevance of the QI Maturity Tool in a Canadian setting

November 16, 2015
Nicole Lorenzo et al.

Objective: To examine if the compensation of local public health directors responds to organizational size in the same manner found for other types of for-profit, not-for-profit, and public managers.

Design: Panel data ordinary least squares with fixed effects for the local health department and time period. Control variables include median household income, the unemployment rate, and the part-time versus full-time and independent versus district status of the local public health department.

November 16, 2015
Lee Johnston et al.

Over the past few decades, cross-sector partnerships that include the private sector have become an increasingly accepted practice in public health, particularly in efforts to address infectious disease in low and middle income countries. Now they are becoming a popular tool in efforts to reduce and prevent obesity and the epidemic of non-communicable disease. Partnering with business presents a means of acquiring resources, as well as opportunities to influence the private sector toward more healthful practices.

November 16, 2015
Angela Carman DrPH

In a system experiencing dwindling resources, public health practitioners must be able to explain their goals, services, and impact via terms and concepts understood by policymakers, governmental representatives, and community members. The use of concepts such as private sector partnership development, quality improvement, expense management, and cost analysis can provide public health practitioners means for growth and improvement, as well as the ability to communicate value to decision makers.

September 10, 2015
Anna G. Hoover

The articles in this issue of Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research look at a variety of ways in which public health, clinical practice, and their private sector partners build and deploy knowledge in workplaces and communities for purposes ranging from strategic prioritization to program evaluation to health promotion.

September 10, 2015
Leslie M. Beitsch et al.

Widespread adoption of quality improvement activities in public health trails other U.S. sectors. Launching the national public health accreditation program of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) has propelled health department momentum around quality improvement uptake. Domain 9 of the PHAB standards focuses on evaluation and improvement of performance, and is acting as a strong driver for quality improvement and performance management implementation within health departments.