Managing complex systems: performance management in public health.

The complexity of mobilizing and managing systems-wide public health responses has prompted Turning Point's Performance Management National Excellence Collaborative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to develop a conceptual framework for performance management in public health. The framework has four integrated parts: (1) performance standards, (2) performance measures, (3) reporting of progress, and (4) a quality improvement process. The Collaborative based its framework on evidence gathered through a survey of current state performance management practices, a literature review, and its investigation of current practice models. This balanced and cohesive management model can be constructively used by public health programs, organizations, and community and state public health systems.