Illinois Department of Public Health
Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs
IPLAN Process
Step 4 Tools: Prioritize Community Health Problems
North Carolina Community Assessment Guidebook (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services)
Link:
http://www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/data/databook/2002/GuideBook2002.pdf
Description:
This comprehensive resource includes two key tools within Phase 6-4 to 6-11 and worksheets (pages 194-199). The Problem Importance Worksheet can be found on page 200 and will help in rating a community health problem. The Problem Prioritization Worksheet can be found on page 201 will help in ranking a community health problem. Both are meant to aid in assessment.
Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (Prevention Institute)
Link:
http://www.preventioninstitute.org/thrive/index.php
Description:
This is an online tool to help determine priorities and risk factors. THRIVE is a tool to help you understand and prioritize the factors within your own community that can help improve health and safety. The tool can help answer questions such as: How can I identify key factors in my community and rate their importance? How are these factors related to health outcomes? What can I do to address each factor? Where can I go for more information?
Module 5 Situational Analysis of Health and Health Services Problems in the District Unit 2: Priority Setting (Invent)
Link:
http://www.gc21.de/ibt/site/DHM/ibt/ppt/M5_U2_Transparencies.pdf
Description:
This PowerPoint addresses different techniques of priority setting, critical analysis of the relevance of different priority setting techniques, the use of a simple matrix method to identify problems, and advantages and disadvantages of the matrix method.
Priority Setting Techniques (New York Department of Health)
Link:
http://www.health.state.ny.us/statistics/chac/tech.htm
Description
This website is the New York Department of Health's explanation of dot voting, weighted voting and consensus techniques.
Priority Setting Resources: Selected Background Information and Techniques (Cornell Cooperative Extension)
Link:
http://staff.cce.cornell.edu/administration/program/documents/priority_setting_tools.pdf
Description:
This 17 page document describes the challenges to setting organizational priorities and provides multiple methods to establish organizational priorities, including the Decision Matrix, Paired Comparisons, Multi-voting, and Strategy Grids.
Planning Public Health Programs PH 442 (Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center)
Link:
Description:
This course was created by the Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center and is part of the Program Development & Evaluation (PH 440) course series. These courses can be taken separately and in any sequence desired. The overall PH 440 series emphasizes practical perspectives on health planning, program development, and evaluation of public health programs. Emphasis is on the processes of assessing, planning, developing, budgeting, implementing, and evaluating public health programs.
Related Tools:
Decision Matrix (American Society for Quality)
Link:
http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/decision-making-tools/overview/decision-matrix.html
Description
This page is an explanation of decision matrices as used in the SIMPLEX work sheet supplemented with examples of decision matrices. A decision matrix evaluates and prioritizes a list of options. The team first establishes a list of weighted criteria and then evaluates each option against those criteria. This is a variation of the L-shaped matrix.
Prioritization (NACCHO/CDC)
Link:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/ocphp/nphpsp/documents/Prioritization.pdf
Description:
The supplemental resource to the APEXPH workbook provides an overview of several prioritization processes including: Nominal Group Planning Method, the Simplex Method, and the Criteria Weighting Method.
Priority Setting Tool: A Customization of the SIMPLEX Method (CDC)
Link:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/ocphp/nphpsp/documents/Priority%20Setting%20Exercise1-Simplex.pdf
Description:
This three page Simplex method prioritization exercise helps you consider the size of the problem, the seriousness of the problem, effective interventions available to address the problem, etc.
Guide for Establishing Public Health Priorities (Public Health Learning.com)
Link:
http://www.uic.edu/sph/prepare/courses/ph440/mods/bpr.htm
Description:
The Hanlon Method or Basic Prioritizing Rating System described here provides means to compare different health problems in a relative, not absolute, framework, as equally as possible, and in a somewhat objective manner.