Infectious Disease Capacity Building: Policy Development, Evaluation, and Quality Improvement for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health

JSI has worked with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) for many years to provide technical assistance, quality improvement, policy analyses, and other technical services to support the Office of HIV/AIDS and Bureau of Infectious Diseases. For example, through the Technical Assistance for Service Integration (TA4SI) initiative, JSI provides TA and training to integrate public health infectious disease services (e.g., screening, linkage, and treatment for HIV, STIs, hepatitis C, and latent tuberculosis infection) with a focus on data utilization, data quality improvement, practice management, workflow, and partner collaboration. Additional TA4SI efforts aim to enhance provider capacity to identify, find, and link priority populations (e.g., men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and non-U.S. born individuals), into routine health services. JSI also manages and trains providers to use the state CAREWare data system through which state and federally funded HIV service providers in Massachusetts submit demographic and service delivery data.

The project includes a focus on the following specific areas:

1. Policy Analysis and Capacity Development
JSI supports the development, implementation, and evaluation of effective and efficient public health response by conducting an assessment of local, state and national legislative initiatives, legal, regulatory, and other policy that impacts public health response and program management by:

• Conducting assessments of the factors associated with health disparities in populations disproportionately impacted;
• Preparing analysis of the public health impacts identified through assessment activities;
• Developing recommendations and strategies for public health response; and
• Leading the development of tools, techniques, and strategies to facilitate response to policy change.

2. Capacity Building for Quality Improvement
JSI strengthens the capacity for quality improvement by:

• Conducting systems-level assessments of quality improvement protocol, processes, and organizational capacities;
• Identifying strategies to address needs identified through assessment activities; and
• Developing and implement training, educational, and skills-enhancement opportunities to address needs identified by MDPH.

3. Capacity Building to Leverage Health Insurance Coverage in Public Health Services
JSI has also been contracted to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of effective and efficient public health response by:

• Conducting environmental scans to determine challenges and facilitators associated with the provision of service effectiveness;
• Conducting cost- and cost-effectiveness analyses of prevention, care, and treatment services; and
• Developing and delivering toolkits to support the successful implementation of third-party billing and reimbursement.