Performance Measures and COVID

 NY is in the media again for its failure to report COVID deaths in nursing homes. Although you might not think this story is about performance measures, it is. We know that Gov. Cuomo wanted to ensure there were enough hospital beds available. He publicized his solution was to admit new or returning COVID patients back to nursing homes. In the process, he seems to have had a problem with counting. Further, the actual numbers of nursing home deaths were, indeed, underreported, perhaps for political reasons according to the media.

NY shows us some important lessons about performance measurement. 

1.    If performance measures are to be helpful, neutrality can't be violated.  

2.    Create clearly defined definitions. You can't count what you haven't defined.  It raises the question of why it is so much of a concern that deaths be reported in two categories, nursing homes and hospitals. Perhaps, it is because we underfund our nursing homes through Medicaid, Medicare.

3.     Beware of double counting. Who should report deaths? When is it a nursing home death and when is it a hospital death?  What about those dying at home after release from a hospital, nursing home, or those who never were in a hospital or nursing home? 

4.    Determine the reporting chain: the state health dept should have been releasing the report. 

5.    Update data as new information comes in. Data are not static. You may be aware that unemployment figures are updated for a number of months after they are reported to the media.

What Gov Cuomo forgot is that the reason for reporting COVID hospitalizations or deaths or any other data on the pandemic is to learn. What can we do better? That's the goal of performance measurement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/nyregion/cuomo-nursing-home-deaths.html

In the Fog with some Bright Spots

Your strategic plan is out the window, but there are some bright spots, like the flowers.  Turn your strategic plan into a more realistic bullet list with items you can work on.  Make a column for what you will do in the worst case scenario and somewhere in between. You may not be able to have your summer fundraiser, but you can identify what it would look like with a full reopening of the economy, a partial and a back to quarantine scenario.  If you have completion dates in your plan, the columns give you a way to put reality into your goals.  Now you have both an emergency plan document (that you have been putting off creating) and a new strategic plan. 

New and Old Ways to Conduct Business

We may not have gone through two epidemics like my friend in the picture. She turned 103 in April and was a baby when she caught the 1918 flu. She is safe now but she, like the rest of us, is feeling the disruptions to her life. So we cope.

1) Old ways. As you thrive or blunder in your use of technology, there still might be some old ways you can use. A text message doesn’t really work for most of our business, but a phone call just might. It's a way to work with your technologically less savvy colleagues as well.

2) The conference call. It’s a tad difficult to set up but it is an alternative to a video conference without the worry of Zoom bombing or setting up the right place in your home. You've seen lots of videos in which the light in back of the person is bright so that you can barely see them. No worries about seeing only the top of a person's head.

3) Some things must change. If you need a document with a third-party signature or notarized, check what your state says can be done via video or audio or with such tools as pdf encrypted signatures. A contractor or auditor may still be able to work with you if you can establish permissions to access your databases.

4) Something new and old. You may need to interview a candidate even as many must layoff. The panel interview is still the best way, and it isn’t any different in times of COVID except the candidate and your panel may be in many places using videoconferencing. You may have to hire after conducting a second panel via videoconferencing, without the candidate ever visiting. These are truly odd times.

5) Something old. Depending upon where you live, you have been through tornadoes, windstorms, snowstorms and power outages. You may have to rely on paper forms. You've seen some UI systems revert to paper.

Nonprofits in a time of the Covid Crisis

United Ways throughout the country are stepping up, changing the way they normally do business. United Way of Eastern Maine is convening nonprofit partners twice a week to discuss the needs and offer them support. They are supporting #nonprofits and individuals in need and have a list of their donations.

Some nonprofits are extending what they do. The Old Colony Y houses the homeless and will continue to do so. It has been selected by the Governor to provide emergency childcare to children of first responders, healthcare workers, and the other essential employees. As stated on the Covid Crisis Fund webpage, “[T]the work we did this past year is not nearly as important as the work we are doing today. And the work we do today won’t be nearly as important as the work we do tomorrow.”

East Bridgewater (MA) Hope, a support service for families of those with addictions, is working on converting to on-line services where once people dropped in. Knowing that we will someday be back to normal, the Board is still planning on having its own space.

Please support these groups and the ones you know best in your area.

http://ebhopes.net/ways-to-donate/

https://www.oldcolonyymca.org/covid-crisis-fund

https://www.unitedwayem.org/covid19/

Public Management of Elections

Interview with Angela Holmes, City Clerk of Westbrook

This is the second clip on ensuring integrity of voting I discuss absentee ballots with Angela Holmes

Voting Integrity Election Day

Since I teach and work on public management issues, I don't discuss politics. However, it's important for people to know about the management side of ensuring voting integrity. That's what City Clerks do.
I discuss ensuring that citizens are eligible to vote in this first clip. In the second clip I discuss ensuring that citizens don't vote twice when they use an absentee ballot.  Each is with Angela Holmes, City Clerk, for Westbrook Maine, a community with about 15,000 people.

I Love a Parade

Three reasons for “I love a parade.” 

Your city or Chamber of Commerce may be sponsoring parade or festival this summer or in fall.  Ask yourself three questions:

Do your employees want to participate? 

It can be a lot of fun. It might involve creating a float, a booth, dressing up in shirts that id your nonprofit.  However, it doesn’t necessarily serve your mission, and it may take employees away from their jobs. You have to consider how you will pay them.  

If the answer to the question is Yes, go to question 2 if

No, stop.

     Is it good for publicity? 

That depends upon the audience.  If it’s a parade, more than likely there will families and young children.  If your clients are teenagers, they won’t be there.  Maybe, the fair brings in people from out of town so they will begin to recognize your work.  It’s a chance to hand out a few brochures too.  

If the answer to question 2 is Yes, go to question 3, if

 

No, stop.

      Does it generate revenue either directly or indirectly?

This one doesn’t apply to municipalities but just to nonprofits.  Are there opportunities either directly at the festival or indirectly through a related fundraiser to generate revenue?  Sometimes you can rent a booth for a nominal fee.  A nonprofit had a rubber-ducky fundraiser in the summer along with other summer city activities.  People bought rubber duckies to float down a small stream.  It was a lot of work retrieving rubber duckies.  If it’s fun for employees, and it generates great publicity, you still might want to participate.  Still keep in mind each year, what you are trying to accomplish.