Planning and Evaluation Resources

Glossaries of Evaluation Terminology

Evaluation Planning

 

NSW Health Clinical Practice Improvement Guides

Best Practice in Evaluation:

  • A Guide to using data for health care quality improvement (VQC 2008)
    This resource provides comprehensive, but easy to understand, information about how health services can use data to support their quality improvement efforts. The guide contains information about strategies and tools to support effective data collection, analysis and reporting.
  • Better Quality, Better Health Care (VQC 2005)
    This report provides a framework for evaluation across Victorian Health Services. It focuses on organisation wide evaluation and the important role of effective governance to lead quality improvement.
  • The Evaluation Center: Evaluation Checklists (Western Michigan University 2010)
    This site provides refereed checklists for designing, budgeting, contracting, staffing, managing, and assessing evaluations of programs, personnel, students, and other evaluands; collecting, analysing, and reporting evaluation information; and determining merit, worth, and significance. Each checklist is a distillation of valuable lessons learned from practice.

Evaluation tools / methodologies:

Data Directories

  • Health Care Quality and Safety Data Directory
    Providing improved access to better data is one component of a strategic approach to reducing the risk of harm and improving health care safety and quality in Victoria. The VQC commissioned an investigation of health databases to identify which data collections could support quality and safety initiatives in Victorian health services. The resultant “Health Care Quality and Safety Data Directory” (The Directory) contains details of data collections that have been evaluated as the most relevant to assist health services to improve the quality and safety of health care.
  • How to search for evidence of intervention effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
    This tool is relevant to searching for evidence of intervention effectiveness. It provides guidance to the steps required to review the evidence on a given research question in the area of intervention effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The search strategy and the sources of evidence are also presented.

Data Analysis

 

Partnership Evaluation Tools

  • VicHealth Partnership Analysis Tool
    The Partnerships Analysis Tool provides a tool for organisations entering into or working with a partnership to assess, monitor and maximise its ongoing effectiveness. The tool is designed to provide a focus for discussion between agencies. The tool can be used at different times in the partnership. The tool may also be useful to a lead agency as a tool for reflection when forming and planning partnerships.
  • Partnership Self-Assessment Tool
    This tool measures the partnership’s level of synergy in relation to a number of key indicators (e.g. leadership, efficiency, administration and management, and sufficiency of resources) and provides information that helps to identify strengths and weaknesses in these areas. It also measures partners’ perspectives about the partnership’s decision-making process, the benefits and drawbacks they experience as a result of participating in the partnership, and their overall satisfaction with the partnership. The Tool was designed to be used by partnerships for their own internal evaluation (it was not intended for use by external partnership evaluators). Although it is applicable to a broad range of partnerships, the Tool is not meant for partnerships at all stages of development or partnerships of all sizes. To use the Tool, a partnership needs to: Have been in existence at least six months; Be a group of people and organizations that continually work together to develop and modify strategies to achieve their goals; Have begun to take action to implement its plans; Have at least five active partners.
  • Assessing Strategic Partnership: The partnership assessment tool
    The purpose of this tool is to provide a simple, quick and cost-effective way of assessing the effectiveness of partnership working. It enables a rapid appraisal (a quick ‘health check’) which graphically identifies problem areas. This allows partners to focus remedial action and resources commensurate with the seriousness and urgency of the problems. For those just setting up partnerships the Tool provides a checklist of what to ensure and what to avoid.
  • The Partnership Assessment Tool
    This automated assessment tool provides a process by which partners can assess the expected value of a prospective partnership and identify ways to improve future partnership activities. Specifically, the tool can be used to assess preparedness, to identify opportunities for early adjustment, and to position for successful project implementation. Partners should use PAT after project planning is complete but before the project is launched. The tool can be used multiple times on the same project, for example, after improvements identified in an initial assessment have been implemented.