Open AccessState level comprehensive health planning: a retrospect.
Author(s) -
William J. Waters
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.66.2.139
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , agency (philosophy) , intervention (counseling) , ranking (information retrieval) , state (computer science) , environmental health , psychology , applied psychology , medicine , computer science , sociology , psychiatry , social science , algorithm , machine learning
A questionnaire survey of the 50 state CHP agencies and a case study of a single state CHP agency were conducted to contrast the concept of comprehensive health planning with the practice of health planning at the state level. Both the survey and the case study evidenced a substantial disparity between concept and practice. For example, the survey indicated that the following tasks had not been completed by the following percentages of the responding agencies: defining the system of interest (64%), ranking problems (50%), setting targets (74%), thoroughly analyzing intervention alternatives (71%), selecting criteria and procedures for intervention evaluations (57%). The state CHP agencies were found to be lacking in the following areas: (a) technical analyses, (b) explicitness, (c) priority setting, (d) attention to health status indices and preventive interventions, and (e) integration of planning activities. The implications of these findings are discussed.