Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Health has been awarded $1,296,995 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the National Public Health Improvement Program. TDOH will use the funds to provide training to staff and to implement an electronic system to manage vital records.
“This program will allow us to improve our collaboration with other state and local government agencies, and to update our vital records system,” said Health Commissioner Susan R. Cooper, MSN, RN. “We are delighted that Tennessee has received these funds to help us deliver services more efficiently to Tennessee residents.”
The goal of the National Public Health Improvement Program is to increase the performance management capacity of public health departments to ensure public health goals are effectively and efficiently met. This program provides health departments with needed resources to make changes in their organizations and practices so they can improve the delivery of public health services.
Tennessee’s project is comprised of two components. The first is an effort to build relationships with government agencies in ennessee and other states, and to provide training to develop and strengthen skills of health department staff in assessment of health statistics. The second component of the project is to implement the Vital Records Information Systems Management program. This Web-based system will enable the Department of Health to improve the timeliness and accuracy of birth and death records, standardize data and streamline linkage of data to health services to improve response to health emergencies.
“By participating in this project, Tennessee is part of the country’s first national public health performance network,” said Lori Ferranti, PhD, MSN, MBA, director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Assessment. “We’ll be using the funds to improve public health services by focusing on standardization, networking and cooperation with other departments and agencies.”
Funds for this cooperative agreement with CDC come from the Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010, and the agreement marks the first project CDC has funded with health reform dollars. To learn more about the National Public Health Improvement Program, visit www.cdc.gov/od/ocphp/nphpsp/.
