Citation

Hunter WM, Schmidt ER, Zakocs RC. J. Public Health Manag. Pract. 2005; 11(1): 29-36.

Affiliation

Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15692290

Abstract

To conduct a formative and pilot impact evaluation of the US State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors' Association program, State Technical Assessment Team (STAT), a visitation-based (visitatie) peer assessment program designed to enhance the organizational capacity of state health department injury prevention programs. The formative evaluation was based on observational, record review, and key informant interview data collected during the implementation of the first 7 STAT visits. Pilot impact data were derived from semi-structured interviews with state injury prevention personnel one year after the visit. Formative evaluation identified 6 significant implementation problems in the first visits that were addressed by the program planners, resulting in improvements to the STAT assessment protocol. Impact evaluation revealed that after one year, the 7 state injury prevention programs had acted on 81% of the recommendations received during their STAT visits. All programs reported gains in visibility and credibility within the state health department and increased collaboration and cooperation with other units and agencies. Other significant program advancements were also reported. Specific program standards and review procedures are important to the success of peer assessment programs such as STAT. Early impact evaluation suggests that peer assessment protocols using the visitatie model can lead to gains in organizational capacity.