Useful Assessment References

This site sponsored by the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania, and AmeriNet Central, a group purchasing organization, features a compendium of resources related to improvement of health and creation of a community-focused health delivery system, including background papers, guidelines, model surveys, annotated bibliographies, and online directories. It also includes reviews of the contents and potential applications of major guides for community health assessment, including APEXPH, PATCH and others.

Community Health Promotion Ideas that work: A field-book for practitioners. M. W. Kreuter, N. A. Levin, L. W. Green. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1998.

Lists the vision, mission and essential public health responsibilities and services in America. It was adopted by a diverse group of governmental agencies and major organizations representing public health, and has been widely accepted.

A Role for Performance Monitoring. This Institute of Medicine (IOM) report draws on lessons from a variety of current activities to outline the elements of a community health improvement process, discuss the role that performance monitoring can play in this process, and propose tools to help communities develop performance indicators.

Outlines findings and recommendations on governmental public health infrastructure, community, health care delivery system, business and employers, media, and academia. It is a follow-up to the 1988 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report, The Future of Public Health that identified and underlined the importance of assessment, policy development and assurance as core functions of public health. The uncorrected and unedited proof is available for reading online and for purchase.