Realizing transformational change through quality improvement in public health.
OBJECTIVE
This article discusses the specific components necessary to achieve transformational change within public health departments as a means for creating sustained performance improvement and better outcomes in the health of the community.


METHODS
This article provides a review of transformation change concepts and application to public health departments.


RESULTS
Transformational change for public health departments must be intentionally designed to achieve high performance. While all improvement requires change, not all change results in improvement.


CONCLUSIONS
The successful transformational change effort always occurs from the top-down, while the process improvement occurs from the bottom-up. Transformational change is possible in public health departments when small incremental improvements are linked with large-scale management changes to continually improve public health performance resulting in better population outcomes.
Riley
William J
WJ
School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. riley001@umn.edu
Parsons
Helen M
HM
Duffy
Grace L
GL
Moran
John W
JW
Henry
Brenda
B
D015279:Organizational Culture; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011634:Public Health / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends*; D058996:Quality Improvement