Strategic Plan

Local Public Health Assessment and Planning (LPHAP)

Office of Performance Improvement (OPI)

How To Do It

Organize Assess Facilitated Planning Session	Action Plan Development Meet National Standards Examples: Strategic Plans

Strategic Plan Process Overview (PDF: 135KB / 2 pages)

1. Organize (Getting Started)

Printer-Friendly: Getting Started: Organize (PDF: 69KB / 1 page)

A. Recruit Strategic Planning Team

This team could include:

CHS Administrator/Director
CHS Department Directors
CHS Supervisor(s)

CHB Members
County Board Members
Key Public Health Staff

B. Set Meeting Dates, Times, and Locations

C. Identify Stakeholders

Tool: Stakeholder Identification (DOC: 42KB / 1 page)

Use the Stakeholder Identification Tool to list those who may be interested in your planning process or have a stake in the outcome. If the people or groups on the list above are not included in your planning team, you can consider them. Also consider:

Community Organizations
Local Health Care Providers
and Hospitals

Elected Officials
All Public Health Staff
Other: __________

D. Develop Communications

Tool: Communications Plan (DOC: 60KB / 1 page)

Fill in the communications plan with:

Who needs to be communicated with regarding your plan and planning process
The information they need
The medium/method used to communicate with them
Frequency of communications needed

E. Collect Documents and Information

Collect documents and information that will be relevant to setting the context for your plan.*

Current mission, vision, and values statements
Past CHAAP assessments and plans
Organizational assessment against national public health standards and measures, and three standards most in need of improvement
Other internal assessments/plans (such as: emergency preparedness, quality improvement, home visiting, etc.)
External assessments (such as: hospital community assessment, United Way, etc.)
Public health budget
Possible federal health care reform impacts on local public health
More Information: NACCHO: Implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PDF: 767KB / 3 pages)
More documents, as you think they will help set context

* Depending on the order of deliverables produced, your department may use the documents above in a different order

< Return to the top of the page

2. Assess

To prepare for planning, a group of staff can review collected documents and information, to inform their assessment of current conditions the department is facing.

What are the department's strengths and accomplishments?
What are the department's weaknesses and external challenges?
What are the department's current opportunities?

By answering these questions, the planning team will be prepared to develop a strategic vision of a strong health department positioned to effectively carry out its mission.

Tool: Summary of Reports and Key Trends
(DOC: 29KB / 1 page)

< Return to the top of the page

3. Facilitated Planning Session

Staff from the MDH Office of Performance Improvement (OPI) are trained and available to facilitated the strategic vision and goals sections of a CHB's or tribal health department's planning process. OPI staff can also offer support to prepare for the facilitated session, and to complete the plan.

Help: To request OPI facilitation services, please contact your Public Health Nurse Consultant

Departments can also acquire other outside facilitation services, or can lead the process internally.

More Information: Facilitated Planning Session: Overview
(PDF: 184KB / 2 pages)

For more assistance, you can also consult NACCHO's guide to developing LHD strategic plans:

More Information: NACCHO: Developing a Local Health Department Strategic Plan

< Return to the top of the page

4. Action Plan Development

Once your department develops a strategic vision and strategies to reach that vision, you will need to develop work plans to implement those strategies. The tools below are designed to help develop action plans that can be compiled into a final work plan.