Iowa was one of the first states to participate in a national Laboratory System Improvement Program. The Hygienic Laboratory’s Organizational Development coordinated and launched the Iowa implementation.
Iowa was one of the first states to participate in a national Laboratory System Improvement Program. The Hygienic Laboratory’s Organizational Development coordinated and launched the Iowa implementation.
The Office of Organizational Development was established in 2014. This office oversees strategic planning, organizational change, quality improvement, performance measurement and systems design. Areas of focus include workforce performance, customer engagement, financial sustainability, improvement and innovation, and subject expertise.
As part of the office, the quality assurance coordinators develop and conduct continuous quality improvement processes that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and services. This includes applying process improvement concepts to quality management systems; collecting and analyzing data; and assuring compliance, training, education and leadership.
- Evaluated, updated and transitioned the Strategic Plan to SMART (specific-measurable-achievable-relevant-timely) tactics.
- Held a statewide event with 60 participants to evaluate Iowa’s public health/public health laboratory system as part of the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ Laboratory System Improvement Program (L-SIP).
- Completed training and certifications in Project Management and Lean/Six Sigma.
- Developed informatics reports for operations, finance and data visualization applications.
- Provided leadership through participation in the APHL Knowledge Management committee and its Laboratory Systems and Standards committee, and helped plan for a quality systems conference to be jointly sponsored by APHL and FDA.
- Engaged a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI) through completion of eight events and seven in-progress projects using peer groups. Projects included opportunities for improvement in daily workflow, such as reducing time or materials needed in a process. These included preparing laboratory media, tracking proficiency testing and reviewing the kit-ordering process.