Facilitated Look-Backs
A New Quality Improvement Tool for Management of Routine Annual and Pandemic Influenza
ResearchPublished May 19, 2006
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contracted RAND to develop resources and prepare analyses that help describe and enhance key aspects of state and local public health emergency preparedness. As part of this work, RAND designed and tested a new quality-improvement tool that public health agencies can adopt to regularly look back at each routine annual influenza season to systematically institutionalize knowledge from one influenza season to the next; continuously improve the public health response to routine annual influenza; and incorporate lessons into preparedness activities for pandemic influenza and other public health emergencies. RAND staff developed and pilot-tested this “Look-Back” methodology in three state public health agencies (SPHAs) in different regions of the United States between June and August 2005.
In this document, we provide SPHA leaders with the basic information necessary to conduct Look-Backs at routine annual influenza with their staff members and to tailor the tool to their own needs and experiences. In addition, we report on some design issues and lessons that emerged from out pilot tests that may be of interest to SPHAs.
This report was prepared for the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, but it should be of interest to policymakers, public health professionals, and individuals who are involved in routine annual influenza management and pandemic influenza and public health emergency preparedness.
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- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Web-Only
- Year: 2006
- Pages: 65
- Document Number: TR-320-DHHS
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Aledort, Julia E., Nicole Lurie, Karen A. Ricci, David J. Dausey, and Stefanie Howard, Facilitated Look-Backs: A New Quality Improvement Tool for Management of Routine Annual and Pandemic Influenza, RAND Corporation, TR-320-DHHS, 2006. As of October 11, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR320.html
Aledort, Julia E., Nicole Lurie, Karen A. Ricci, David J. Dausey, and Stefanie Howard, Facilitated Look-Backs: A New Quality Improvement Tool for Management of Routine Annual and Pandemic Influenza. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2006. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR320.html.
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