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Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

PHI-12.9 Data Details

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PHI-12.9 Increase the proportion of public health laboratory systems (including State, Tribal, and local) that perform at a high level of quality in evaluating effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services

About the Data

Description of the data source, numerator, denominator, survey questions, and other relevant details about the national estimate.

Data Source:

Public Health Laboratory Systems Survey

Changed Since the Healthy People 2020 Launch:

Yes

Measure:

percent

Baseline (Year):

5 (2012)

Target:

Target-Setting Method:

10 percent improvement

Numerator:

Number of public health laboratory systems that perform at a high level of quality in evaluating effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services

Denominator:

Number of public health laboratory systems that respond to the Public Health Laboratory Systems Survey

Comparable Healthy People 2010 Objective:

Not applicable

Questions Used to Obtain the National Baseline Data:

From the 2012 Public Health Laboratory Systems Survey:

[NUMERATOR:]

Measurement: The laboratory system participates in the evaluation of the effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of laboratory services needed in the community.

Optimal condition: Members of the State Public Health Laboratory System have a mechanism in place to measure and evaluate services and operations in the system to assure that the needs of the community continue to be met, the quality of services provided are high, and changes are made when quality and access objectives are not met.

Question: How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “The partners and stakeholders within my state routinely collaborate to evaluate the effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of laboratory services within the system.”?

Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree

Data Collection Frequency:

Biennial

Methodology Notes:

The Public Health Laboratory Systems Survey (PHLSS) includes one question on the evaluation of effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services. This question solicits Likert scale responses, such as Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. Responses of “Strongly Agree” are assigned a score of 2, “Agree” 1, and “Disagree/Strongly Disagree” 0. Scores are then averaged. If the average score is 1.5 or higher, then the laboratory system is deemed to be performing at a high level of quality in the evaluation of effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.

The PHLSS was distributed via an Internet survey to all state (and D.C.) public health laboratory directors. The PHLSS has 10 sections that correspond to the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Each section has one to three questions about the relevant Essential Service that solicit Likert scale responses. The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) had previously developed a document called the “Key Elements/Capacities for Highly Functioning State Public Health Laboratory Systems” that was the guide in the creation of the PHLSS. The document identifies the capacities that should be in place in a State Public Health Laboratory System in order for that system to be functioning at a high level in support of the 10 Essential Public Health Services. A taskforce composed of APHL members and staff developed questions that asked for the respondent’s level of agreement as it pertained to statements of a State Public Health Laboratory System’s performance based on the “Key Elements” document.

Caveats and Limitations:

2012 data were based on DC and 42 states excluding AK, DE, MD, ND, NJ, SC, UT, and WA.

Revision History

Any change to the objective text, baseline, target, target-setting method or data source since the Healthy People 2020 launch.

Description of Changes Since the Healthy People 2020 Launch:

In 2013, objective PHI-12 became measurable. Ten new objectives (PHI-12.1 through 12.10) were created, each addressing one of the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Although the objective language includes State, Tribal, and local public health laboratories, the current measure includes only State laboratories.