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Perinatal Periods of Risk. Assuring the Quality of Your Evaluation Stephen Horan, PhD Community Health Solutions, Inc. November 23, 2004. Five reasons health programs fail. Flawed program theory Flawed program design Flawed implementation Over-reach on outcomes Flawed evaluation.
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Perinatal Periods of Risk Assuring the Quality of Your Evaluation Stephen Horan, PhD Community Health Solutions, Inc. November 23, 2004
Five reasons health programs fail • Flawed program theory • Flawed program design • Flawed implementation • Over-reach on outcomes • Flawed evaluation
Five recommendations… • …for assuring the quality of your program and your program evaluation • Make sure you have a solid program theory • Make sure you have a solid program design • Make sure your implementation is complete • Make sure you select the most important outcomes to measure • Make sure you have a sound measurement strategy
Solid program theory • Program theory • The set of causal assumptions about why a particular intervention will cause a particular outcome • Ask yourself: • What makes you think this thing will work for this particular population in this particular setting?
Solid program design • Program design • The planned program theory, target population, resources, activities, outputs, and outcomes of your program • Ask yourself: • Does your program design reflect the program theory in terms of target population, scope of intervention, intensity of intervention, and length of intervention?
Complete implementation • Ask yourself: • Have we implemented this program according to program design? • If not, did we have a good reason? • Remember: • A “little bit” of implementation might not produce a “little bit” of outcome. Sometimes its all or nothing.
Selecting outcomes to measure • Not every outcome can or should be measured • Ask yourself: • Is this outcome important to our audience(s)? • Is this outcome within our sphere of influence? • Is this outcome achievable within our program timeframe? • Is this outcome measurable?
Sound measurement strategy • Five keys to success: • Make sure the evaluation design reflects the program theory • Make sure the evaluation design reflects the actual size of the program • Measure only the most important inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes • Remember to collect a baseline • Incorporate data collection into routine business processes
Contact • Stephen Horan, PhD • Community Health Solutions • 9603 BC Gayton Road Suite 201 • Richmond, VA 23238 • Voice 804.673.0166 • Fax 804.673.2244 • shoran@communityhealthinfo.com • www.communityhealthsolutions.net