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The health outcome and risk status measures in this appendix are presented to illustrate the types of measures that might be included in performance partnership grants (PPGS) between state agencies and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). These measures were selected from among the many proposed to the panel by participants at four regional meetings sponsored by DHHS, as well as by professional health associations and private agencies and individuals. The panel chose the measures using the guidelines described in Chapter 1 of this report: a measure should be specific and results oriented; it should be meaningful and understandable; data should be adequate to support the measure; and the measure should be as valid, reliable, and responsive as possible.
These health outcome and risk status measures are not meant to represent a mandated list. Few states are likely to have all of the data necessary to support all of these measures. In addition, state agencies may well have major priorities beyond those represented by the categories of outcome measures listed here (e.g., injury prevention, oral health, hearing and vision, environmental health) and are responsible for administering major programs relevant to public health that are not covered by this report (e.g., Medicaid). In addition, the panel did not attempt to identify all of the measures that might be relevant for specific important subpopulations (i.e., groups defined by demographic or risk categories). Consequently, the health outcome and risk status measures shown below should be
NOTE: This appendix is adapted from Appendix C of this panel's first report, Assessment of Performance Measures for Public Health, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health (National Research Council, 1997).
considered an important subset, but not an exhaustive listing, of those that will be of interest to state agencies.
A major goal of this report is to provide an analytic framework for use by the states and DHHS in assessing the appropriateness of specific outcome, process, and capacity measures proposed for PPG agreements in the future. The panel hopes that the field of performance measure evaluation will evolve as new health outcome measures are defined and studied and become available. It is anticipated that many of the measures described in this report can, in time, be modified or replaced by others that meet the selection guidelines cited above.