June 14, 2014 NPHIC Award Entries http://www.nphic.org/awards-home-page
Award Category In-house Print/Graphic: Annual Report Entry 1 Title Ottawa County Department of Public Health 2013 Annual Report Submitted by Kristina Wieghmink, M.Ed. Ottawa County Department of Public Health Communications Specialist & NPHIC Member (616)494-5597 kwieghmink@miottawa.org
Background and Research
The Ottawa County Department of Public Health 2013 Annual Report was created to comply with county guidance, federal financial regulations and generally accepted accounting principles.
The primary target audience is the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and county administrators. The secondary target audience is local and state officials, non-profit organization directors, community foundations and grantors.
Planning
The goal for the 2013 Annual Report was to provide an account of our department’s accomplishments and challenges in program and financial management over the past year.
Our objective was to create a comprehensive educational piece that we could share with officials, leaders, partners and residents about who we are, why we are here and how we make a difference in our community. We did not simply want a required annual report that would be stored in a filing cabinet and forgotten.
Planning began when the Deputy Health Officer and I discussed the report deadline and presentation date to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners. We developed a communications plan that included information about our budget, problem to address, target audience, desired outcome, potential barriers and special needs, partnerships, type of 1
communications and deliverables, take away messages, project deadline, what we wanted people to do with the information and what action we wanted them to take.
The next step of the planning process involved a communications audit; reviewing previous department annual reports, the county’s annual reports and other departments within the county’s annual report. I needed to develop an understanding of what had been presented to the board in the past by our department and other departments throughout the county. This way, I could have a better idea of the board’s past experiences and expectations.
After we defined our goals, objectives, developed the communications plan and completed the communications audit, I collected more information to create the report: o
executive letter from the Health Officer sharing who we are and how we serve our community,
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why public health matters,
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contributions we’ve made to the community,
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identify how we make data-driven and evidence based decisions,
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recognize health partners,
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define how our department aligns with the county’s strategic plan and 4 Cs initiative,
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financial report
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and division and program information from managers and supervisors; description of the division or program, why it is important, accomplishments and challenges, statistics, photographs of the managers and supervisors, list of staff, manager and supervisor quotes, any other appealing information to grab the public’s attention and selected royalty free photography.
The communications strategy included presenting and providing the report to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and the County Administrator.
Additional reports, as part of the plan, were given to department administrative leaders, managers and supervisors to share their division and program information with the public, health partners and community organizations. The report was also provided to community foundations and grantors, to serve as an educational tool when applying for grants. 2
Budget, Materials Used & Execution
$500 budget used for the cost of printing.
$511 spent for 50 reports.
With a limited budget, we relied on staff, my communications and design experiences and community partners to help create and distribute the reports throughout the county.
Messages to the target audience:
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Message 1 – Ottawa County Department of Public Health strives to be one of the primary community health resources for residents, the media and community partners.
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Message 2 – Maintaining public trust in governmental agencies is important to us, as we can continue to be a reliable, credible, transparent and trustworthy department, that responds to public health concerns and issues with accurate, relevant and timely information or action items.
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Message 3 - “The Governor’s push for intergovernmental collaboration is causing Ottawa County and others to re-evaluate our administrative infrastructure in order to determine what extent efficiencies can be gained and redundancy eliminated,” stated by Alan G. Vanderberg, Ottawa County Administrator’s State of Ottawa County 2012 address.
Communication and deliverables: o
40 page (8.50” x 11”) spiral bound printed and electronic reports distributed to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, county administrators, Ottawa County Department of Public Health administrative leaders, managers and supervisors, health partners, community organizations, community foundations and grantors. www.miOttawa.org/Health2013
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Updated the website and created a shortened url www.miOttawa.org/Health2013 to better promote and access information.
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Presentation to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, county administrators and the public at the Ottawa County Fillmore Complex on March 24, 2014.
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News release to the media and department staff. http://www.miottawa.org/MediaRoom/pdf/2014/04022014.pdf
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Social media posts to www.facebook.com/miOttawaHealth and https://twitter.com/miocdph. 3
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Publication in the April 4, 2014 issue of the County Administrator’s Community Digest. http://miottawa.org/Departments/Admin/pdf/Digest/2014/04042014.pdf
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Publication in the county employee newsletter.
Results
Number of contacts who received the printed and electronic reports. A pdf file and on-line link were sent to department staff, Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, County Administrator’s office, County employees and partnering organizations.
Number of contacts who received the news release.
Social media and website analytic reports to determine the target audience reach (posts viewed, shared, liked, commented, re-tweeted, increase in followers and visits).
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