By: Adam Luecking
January 24th, 2023
Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary organizations and agencies making measurable differences in their communities. The following Vermont Department of Health spotlight is an excerpt from “Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact” by Adam Luecking. You can download the book for free here and read all 16 Social Sector Hero Spotlights.
In this Social Sector Hero’s Spotlight, learn more about how the Vermont Department of Health is achieving measurable health outcomes and improving public transparency with the help of Clear Impact Scorecard.
Table of Contents
1. Our Story Begins with the Community Profiles of Health
2. Supporting Continuous Health Improvement with Departmental Scorecards
3. Achieving Measurable Health Improvements
4. One of the First States to be Nationally Accredited by PHAB
5. A Positive Public Perception Never Hurts!
1. Our Story Begins with the Community Profiles of Health
The roots of the state of Vermont sharing data with the public began in 1995 when Secretary Con Hogan directed the development of Community Profiles of Health and Wellbeing. Vermont developed these Profiles with the help of the RBA framework. They showed “Data about conditions experienced by Vermonters to support the development of local insights, cross-sector collaboration, and action to make a measurable difference.” Each Profile also contained a set of Indicators at the County, District, and Hospital Service Area levels. The Profiles were initially published in a printed book and distributed annually until 2008. At that time, Secretary Hogan and Mark Friedman (creator of RBA) traveled the state to provide RBA training and introduce the Profiles.
2. Supporting Continuous Health Improvement with Departmental Scorecards
Vermont’s Agency of Human Services (AHS) revived the practice of producing the Profiles in 2018 using the Clear Impact Scorecard. This online tool encourages dynamic use and continuous improvement over time.
Building on the history of the profiles, Director of Performance Improvement Drusilla Roessle (and a team of Social Sector Heroes across the organization) led an effort for all six AHS departments to share at least one scorecard online. Departments included the Department for Children and Families, Department of Corrections, Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living, Department of Mental Health, Department of Vermont Health Access, and Vermont Department of Health. According to AHS, the scorecards help them demonstrate their commitment to driving and supporting outcomes-oriented and data-driven strategies at the state and local levels. Furthermore, AHS uses scorecards to measure, monitor, and continuously improve its programs, focusing on whether clients are better off.
The Vermont Department of Health now hosts 22 scorecards on its website, covering all its health focus areas. Each scorecard displays the population-level Outcomes, Indicators it’s trying to impact, and every state-funded program. And the Department remembered the importance of context too! Every measure includes a corresponding Turn the Curve plan.
Furthermore, Vermont aggregated its statewide Outcomes into a separate scorecard for a high-level overview of their impact and success. The Statewide Population-Level Outcomes Report is Vermont’s legislative strategy for embedding RBA into its practices. AHS inspired the use of the scorecards by the Agency of Administration, which now has all Vermont agencies’ submissions to the statewide indicator report done through a Scorecard. You can see the report and scorecard at SocialSectorHero.com/Resources (see Chapter 9 resources).
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3. Achieving Measurable Health Improvements
Some of the Vermont Department of Health’s measurable improvements include:
- From 2014 to 2018, immunizations among children increased by 22 percent, from 63.2 percent to 76.8 percent of children aged 19 to 35 months
- Public health funding increased by 60 percent between 2017-2018 and 2019-2020
- From 2001 to 2019, the prevalence of youth smokers reduced from 24 percent to 7 percent.
A note about these measures:
Some of this data is no longer publicly available online at the original source. We obtained many of these statistics from America’s Health Rankings. We verified this data prior to the publication of Social Sector Hero in July 2022.
4. One of the First States to be Nationally Accredited by PHAB
On June 19, 2014, Health Commissioner Harry Chen, MD, announced that Vermont had become one of the first state health departments to receive National Public Health Accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The accreditation process has challenged the Health Department to think critically about the way they work to protect and promote the health of Vermonters. It allows them to identify processes where improvements are needed, and it has given them the opportunity to strengthen their culture of continuous quality improvement.
Where does transparency fit into the accreditation equation? Notably, Vermont Health Department’s online Scorecards help fulfill PHAB’s performance management system and public communications requirements. Community Health Assessments and Improvement Plans are also prerequisites for PHAB accreditation. Scorecards help the agency organize and share its State Health Improvement Plan Scorecard publicly on its website so that visitors can get an overview of strategies and planned interventions designed to impact health priorities.
5. A Positive Public Perception Never Hurts!
Achieving a positive public perception isn’t necessarily an end goal. That’s reserved for social impact. But perception can certainly influence an agency’s ability to continue providing services that are creating measurable impact. For Vermont, honesty and transparency have translated into tangible changes in perception, buy-in for their methodology, and public support.
Vermont is consistently ranked as one of the healthiest (and sometimes happiest) states in the nation. In 2017, Vermont tied with South Dakota for the top spot in the Gallup-Sharecare 2017 State of American Wellbeing Rankings, with high scores for physical health, social connections, finances, community, and sense of purpose. From 2002 to 2017, The United Health Foundation ranked Vermont in the top five overall healthiest states (they ranked first for four of those years, and ranked second in 2017).
Clearly, using Scorecards to monitor performance and communicate with the public wasn’t just a feel-good exercise for Vermont. Besides achieving measurable progress thanks to an enhanced focus on the data, they’ve reached new heights of national recognition, allowing them to increase their capacity to improve the health and well-being of more Vermonters.
6. Helpful Links
- Get a custom, private demo of Clear Impact Scorecard.
- Check out Vermont’s Performance Scorecards, organized by impact areas
- Check out Vermont’s Outcomes Scorecard Report (Act 186)
- Learn more about how Scorecards help the Vermont Department of Health in their official Clear Impact Scorecard case study
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