1. Running Head:IPLANNINIZERS
IPLANninizers of Kane County
Northern Illinois University
PHHE 469-1
Irene Cruz (Organization Capacity Assessment)
Chanelle Jones (Community Health Plan)
Kevin McKenzie (Accessibility, Availability…)
Omotola Okunuga (Reliability and Validity. . .)
Shqiponja Zeneli (Community Health Needs Assessment)
Organization Capacity Assessment
2. IPLANNINIZERS 2
“The Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs (IPLAN) is a community health
assessment and planning process that is conducted every five years by local health jurisdictions
in Illinois. This is to help county improve their living rates in their area. This help developed
different or more programs for their community to make residents more health. In Kane County,
it is reference as Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).
A Community Health Improvement Plan is a long-term, systematic effort to address
health problems in a community based on results from a community health assessment. The plan
recommends priorities for action and is used by health and other governmental, education, and
social service agencies and organizations to implement policies and programs that promote
health.
The Kane County’s community health needs assessment is found within the required
government IPLAN section. Kane County IPLAN, which is known as the CHIP (Community
Health Improvement Plan), obeys to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH)
requirements. Kane County’s CHIP met this requirement by conducting their assessment every
five years as well as providing their goal for the next five years.
The first thing for a IPLAN, is should be well put together it needs to have some type
format that things are easy to find. Well organized, there should be pages number, subtitles listed
and maybe a table of contents. Also known as capacity which means, the abstract term that
describes a wide range of capabilities, knowledge, and resources that nonprofits need in order to
be effective. According to Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, it is “the rededication to
achieving results.” Organizational capacity is multi-faceted and continually evolving. Six
components of organizational capacity are necessary for high performance: governance and
3. IPLANNINIZERS 3
leadership; mission, vision, and strategy; program delivery and impact.; strategic relationships;
resource development; and internal operations and management.
In Kane’s CHIP, it is well put together from it’s title page to the reference page. There
content meets all the state requirements that they are required to included. Someone could easy
follow the format of the plan since it has the bold words when it is translation from different
topics. Throughout the plan Timmreck’s “10-step Planning Model” is used in the development
of their future goals. It goes really in depth with multiple sub- categories to express their
thoughts within each group. Also to show how the past goals were meet or still being worked on.
The purpose of the IPLAN is to be unique for its assigned area which Kane county has
meet that goal. It starts with the reference of the documentation which is the CHIP unlike
DeKalb’s which it is still IPLAN. I really like that in Kane’s there is color and many graphs
which makes it more presentable. I would not mind working with Kane County’s since it looks
to be more modernized unlike DeKalb’s which looks like a dull documentation. There is similar
data presented but different ways of approaching it since they are different population.
The community health needs assessment as stated by the CDC “identifies key health
issues and needs through systematic data collection and analysis”. This assessment is known to
determine the strengths and identify the weaknesses of Kane County. The community health
needs assessment primarily serves as a structure to improve health problems within the county.
Kane County states that their goal is to” identify areas where we can have the largest
impact on improving the quality of life for all Kane residents – particularly the most vulnerable
residents of our community – by reducing preventable sickness and death”(CHIP 2011). The
4. IPLANNINIZERS 4
CHIP also described the process and outcomes of their listed priorities in order to meet the
second mandate of IDPH. They perform this task by using the National Prevention Strategy.
With this strategy Kane County was able to plan and assess their community Themes and
Strengths and Public Health System Priorities.
After reading the Kane County’s needs assessment, I have come to a conclusion that this
assessment links best with Timmrecks’s “10- Step Planning Model”. This needs assessment
relates to the Timmreck’s three core functions, assessment, policy development, and assurance.
In addition, to the three core measures it also correlates with steps two and four from the model.
Step two is known as the Assessment, organization, resources and review of regulations. CHIP
2011 looks into the internal and external assessments by affiliating the local hospital, United
Way and the INC Board. Step four in Timmreck’s Model is the Needs Assessment. In this step
Timmreck focuses on the process of identifying, completing, and evaluating the needs
assessment. Kane County completes this step by holding focus groups and incorporating
Northern Illinois University Public Opinion Laboratory. Once they compiled their needed data,
Kane County evaluated it in order to come up with their major health priorities.
Overall, the Kane County CHIP needs assessment seems to be much more detailed and in
depth, compared to the DeKalb County IPLAN. The Kane County community health needs
assessment has more data within the CHIP than DeKalb County does. The DeKalb County
IPLAN has a simple layout and makes it easy to find each section. They also focused only on
their three priorities whereas; Kane County looked into other factors that affect the county as
well. Some factors that they took into consideration were socioeconomic status, access to
healthcare, as well as their surrounding environments. Being able to incorporate these factors
5. IPLANNINIZERS 5
into their major health priorities will allow them to develop programs in order to have a healthier
county. I believe that both counties did a nice job laying out their IPLAN’s but it all depends on
who has the supporting data, and Kane County did a much better job providing this information.
This makes the Kane County CHIP more reliable and much more evidence based.
The Kane County Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) is set to better Kane
residents and help improve quality of life. The plan can be used by health professionals, the
government, in educational settings, communities, social services, faith- based organizations and
other identifying agencies where resources are used to improve one’s quality of life in Kane
County (CHIP, 2011-2016). The plan includes four priorities and six health threats focusing on
the causes contributing to the health issues people face every day. CHIP is not only focusing on
access to medical care or behaviors but also on social, economic and environments that
contribute to good health. Kane County believe the need to address these issues may result in
“successful” population health. The four priorities are Support Health Behaviors that Promote
Well-Being and Prevent Disease Priority, Increase Access to High Quality, Holistic Preventive
and Treatment Services Across the Health Care System Priority, Support and Create Health
Promoting Neighborhoods, Towns and Cities Priority, and Promote Social, Economic, and
Educational Environments that Optimize Health. The six health threats that go along with this
are obesity, chronic disease, infant mortality, childhood lead poisoning, communicable disease,
and poor social and emotional wellness.
According to Kane County a few of the goals for the first priority Support Health
Behaviors that Promote Well-Being and Prevent Disease Priority, includes the reduction of
tobacco use and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke which has an effect on chronic
6. IPLANNINIZERS 6
disease. People that don’t smoke are being exposed to hazardous tobacco smoke and needs to be
protected by policies. Also, by increasing access and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables
it can help lower obesity rates, especially in low- income areas where fresh fruit and veggies may
not be available. Coordinate the effective communication of tailored, accurate and actionable
health information to Kane County residents across the lifespan, and create environments that
prevent excessive consumption of alcohol. The second priority Increase Access to High Quality,
Holistic Preventive and Treatment Services across the Health Care System, includes increasing
the proportion of residents of all ages that have regular, ongoing sources of medical and dental
care as well as increasing the proportion of residents of all ages who receive appropriate,
evidence- based clinical preventive services. Also, it focuses culturally appropriate outreach and
engagement efforts to eliminate racial disparities in health outcomes, especially in infant
mortality. It enhances systems to support the prevention, early identification and treatment of
communicable diseases in the community. Lastly, it enhances systems to support the prevention,
early identification and evidence-based treatment of mental health conditions. Priority three
Support & Create Health Promoting Neighborhoods, Towns & Cities goals includes Increase the
availability and variety of high quality, safe and affordable housing and compact, mixed use
developments by Instituting “complete streets” types of policies to ensure that roadways are
designed and operated with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles
and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities. Assure access to safe playgrounds, parks,
trails and open space. Assure access to safe food and clean and safe water and air. The fourth
priority is to Promote Social, Economic and Educational Environments that Optimize Health by
increasing the proportion of children who have high quality early developmental support,
especially in child care and education and by increasing the proportion of Kane County young
7. IPLANNINIZERS 7
people that complete high school education as well as increasing the job skills and readiness of
Kane County residents that is unemployed (CHIP 2011-2016).
The Kane county Community health improvement plan wants to ensure that the
accessibility, availability, and acceptability of the plan is able to reach each individual of the
county wanting to find any information or data relevant to Kane County.
The overall accessibility of the Kane county IPLAN is easy to find and access all the
health and data you are wishing to find as the County’s IPLAN is found online on the Kane
County health department's website which is www.kanehealth.com. For being an individual with
no knowledge of IPLANs, or minimal health and data knowledge finding the website and the
actual IPLAN was rather difficult as they call it the Community Health Improvement
Plan(CHIP) rather than IPLAN which led to confusion when searching for their IPLAN. Once
we found their IPLAN all the data and information we needed was found on a downloadable pdf
file on their main page. Included on that page was multiple live links with other useful data sets,
executive summaries about other assessments the kane county health department has done
previously, as well as having a website that has all their assessments and data sets together in
what seemed to be a one drive or even something similar to dropbox.
The Availability of the IPLAN is available to any individual with the basic technological
requirements in today’s society. Majority of individuals have smart phones, computers, and the
access to emails through one of the many apps they have on their phone so that makes accessing
the available information provided online from Kane County Health Department in regards to
their IPLAN and other health related issues easy as well. For those who don’t have access to
smartphones or a computer they can still access the information available in the IPLAN by
calling or by even physically stopping in to the Health department to speak to a representative or
even ask to have a physical hard copy of the information you are requesting or the entire IPLAN.
Once you have the IPLAN document the availability to any health issues or data is easily
available and is easy to find as the document is easy to read and follow as well as find any data
or information you are looking for within the document.
8. IPLANNINIZERS 8
The Kane County IPLAN follows all the required information and regulations from the
Illinois Department of Public Health when completing their community assessments every five
years. This helps make the County’s IPLAN Acceptable for not only the county itself but for the
individuals living there as well. Within the County IPLAN they have included an Executive
summary detailing the document briefly and what all goes into it and what you may find while
reading over the material. The document also has a table of contents with appendix’s listed at the
end with data sets, tables, and graphs charting data and comparing information from previous
years. The items throughout the document are easy to follow and seem to be in logical order and
won’t confuse the reader as they read over the material and analyze the data sets.
When comparing the Kane County IPLAN to the Dekalb County IPLAN I found that
when searching for the IPLAN for either county Dekalb County’s was easier to find as all i had
to do was google search the name or even just access the website dekalbcounty.gov/health/ and
under Administration tab it has its own link to the county’s IPLAN which may be a little more
difficult as I wouldnt think administration would category id class the IPLAN under. The Dekalb
County IPLAN I feel wasn’t as easy to read as the Kane county IPLAN but when it came to
content and the accessibility and availability of the information provided in either document they
are almost on the same level when it comes to quality and ease of access if you were an
individual with minimal to no knowledge about healthcare and IPLANs. One thing about the
Dekalb County IPLAN that is different than Kane County’s IPLAN is that Dekalb County’s
IPLAN has a much larger table of contents and information included into their IPLAN than Kane
County which I feel can either be a good or bad thing when it comes to analyzing data but may
confuse the reader as they might feel overwhelmed by all the data and information included
within the report.
According to AFMC Primer on Population Health, “Reliability refers to dependability or
consistency” while Validity “does the test measure what we are intending to measure?” So
basically, Reliability is based on how consistent and dependable either a plan or an individual
can be. And Validity is how valid a plan or a measurement we intend on measuring are. AFMC
Primer on Population Health also states that, “there is no single approach to measuring validity:
9. IPLANNINIZERS 9
the approach varies according to the purpose of the measurement and the sources of
measurement error you wish to detect. In medicine, the commonest way to assess validity is to
compare the measurement with a more extensive clinical or pathological examination of the
patient. This is called criterion validation, because it compares the measurement to a full work-
up that is considered a "gold standard" criterion. This is used where the measurement offers a
brief and simple way to assess the patient’s condition, and our question is: How well does this
simple method predict the results of a full and detailed (and also expensive, perhaps invasive)
examination?
On this project, one of the criteria I would be discussing about is Reliability and Validity
of Data Set Information which is already stated above, definitions, and the use of this criteria. In
regards to Kane County IPLAN, on page 12 of Kane County 2012-2016 Community Health
Improvement Plan, it states that they are required to conduct a “community health assessments
every 3-5years”. So basically, there mandated data set to be done every two years.
The data set include to “adopt an implementation strategy”, implement a program to help
promote and protect the health of the public and community by developing the quality of al
health department throughout the United States and national public health departments. So
therefore, the data set does support the goal and objectives stated.
The key objective according to Kane County 2012-2016 Community Health
Improvement IPLAN, “is to integrate for Health Impact Assessment as part of projects, plans,
and policies at the county and municipal level.” And also, the data sets provided is set to be used
every two years but the one used presently is about four years old. Perhaps, this is between four
years season for a reason. Plans and projects for a long term was mapped out to avoid being
10. IPLANNINIZERS 10
assessed every two years but instead include updates when needed. In DeKalb County’s IPLAN,
they seem to be focusing on the broader view of improving Public Health County wide. DeKalb
purpose of IPLAN states that, “it’s a planning process that is based on the Assessment Protocol
for Excellent in Public Health (APEXPH)” by which they would developing public health
organizations worldwide.
According to the DeKalb County Health Department: Illinois Project for Local
Assessments of Needs (IPLAN), DeKalb County provide the following tasks, “commitment to
improving the health of health county, willingness to maintain a county-wide perspective,
willingness to provide the required time, and ability to represent an important perspective,
organization, or sector of the county” all this are their primary objective to improving Public
Health but specifically “identify and prioritize health problems in accordance with the IPLAN
process, present their perspective in discussions, balancing those views with a county-wide
perspective, and finally participate in the development and recommendation of a health plan for
the county”.
Three reasons why I think DeKalb county’s is better, first, they work towards improving
Public Health worldwide, potential priorities are visible, and lastly, IPLAN is well arranged and
easy to access to grab on the important information’s needed. Easy accessibility, valid, and
reliable to the community to follow along with. This is what I call “transparency” by which the
entire county has an idea what is going on within.
Unfortunately, the data set are set at exactly at the range of four years difference. Their
data is reliable in the sense that it’s very dependable, more resourceful, and fully detailed in their
IPLAN in year 2002. As we know that validity, is questioning if the test measure Access to
11. IPLANNINIZERS 11
Health Care (Access to specialty care), Maternal and Child Health (Infant mortality), Chronic
Disease (Cardiovascular diseases), Access to Mental Health Services, and Public Health
Maintenance of Effort”, according to Kane County 2006 Community Health Improvement
IPLAN. With statement it clearly states to what measure they are planning to reach and
implement healthy food productions. Not only that but also redevelopment housing authority,
community gardens, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
Lastly, the most important reason why both reliability and validity is important in an
IPLAN is because reliability states the consistency of change and resources that could be
dependable for future reference while validity is knowing what to measure and question if you’re
measuring what is really needed to be measured. Also the concept of transparency helps to keep
whole county as whole in the loop and follow with assessments.
12. IPLANNINIZERS 12
References
2000 GEN-GEO Conference. (Grantmakers Evaluation Network and Grantmakers for Effective
Organizations, 2000)
AFMC Primer on Population Health: The Association of Facilities of Medicine of Canada
http://phprimer.afmc.ca/Part2MethodsStudyingHealth/Chapter6MethodsMeasuringHealth
/Reliabilityandvalidityofhealthmeasures
Community Health Improvement Plan. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015, from
http://kanehealth.com/chip.htm
DeKalb County Health Department: Illinois Project for Local Assessments of Needs (IPLAN),
March 26 2013. http://dekalbcounty.org/health/administration/pdf/IPLANassess.pdf
IPLAN. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from http://dekalbcounty.org/health/admin
istration/IPLAN.html
Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs (IPLAN). (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2015,
from http://app.idph.state.il.us/
Kane County 2012-2016 Community Health Improvement IPLAN.
http://kanehealth.com/PDFs/CHIP/CHIP-short.pdf
Kane County Community Needs Assessment and Community Health Plan, 2006
http://kanehealth.com/PDFs/Planning/IPLAN/The2006IPLAN.pdf
Kane County Population Estimates, Feb. 2007 by IPLAN Databook 2006/Charts
http://kanehealth.com/PDFs/Planning/IPLAN/IPLANDatabook2006.pdf
