USING RESULTS FROM THE
OUTCOME MEASUREMENT SYSTEM (OMS):
TURNING DATA INTO
ACTION
October 14, 2014 at 2:00PM EDT
Kaitlin Lounsbury, OMS Coordinator
National Children’s Alliance (NCA)
HOW CAN CAC’S USE OMS RESULTS?
Increase Funding
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Improve the likelihood of securing and retaining funding
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Outcomes have become an “expectation” for many funders
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Use OMS results as part of applications for grants, certifications
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Example – Multiple CACs have used OMS results as part of their
applications to become United Way-approved organizations, making
them eligible for additional charitable donations since they were able
to show the value of their programs.
Outcome measurement is often a requirement for funding. Since OMS
addresses issues of importance to funders (and allows for the addition of
funder-specific questions), OMS is often accepted in place of other
surveys.
Support changes in legislation.
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Show state and federal representatives why CACs are valuable
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Provide statistics to representatives to use in their fight for changes in
legislation
Build partnerships with other organizations
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Show other organizations, such as research institutions and child-serving
programs, that your CAC is valued by the community and would make an
effective partner.
HOW CAN CAC’S USE OMS RESULTS?
Raise Awareness
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Enhance public image of CACs
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Add statistics to public awareness campaigns
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Include results as part of flyers and brochures distributed by community
partners
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Share results with local newspapers to raise awareness about the CAC
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Show the value of CACs to other agencies
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Engage professionals from many public service agencies to increase involvement
in the MDT/CAC
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For example, several CACs have shared their OMS results with local media
as part of larger stories about the CAC – the articles helped to raise
awareness about the CAC throughout the community. As a result, more
people contributed to fundraising campaigns and volunteered goods and
services to the CAC, increasing the capacity of the CAC as a whole.
Show agencies that your MDT members value the services of your CAC
Engage CAC Board members
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Attract community/corporate representatives to diversify your Board
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Provide boards with appropriate tools to use in planning and evaluation
HOW CAN CAC’S USE OMS RESULTS?
Improve Services – Show Participants You Value their
Feedback
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Show caregivers that you value their opinions and care about their
children.
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Simply asking for feedback can help caregivers feel more engaged.
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OMS allows the caregiver to take a step back and consider their visit as a whole,
possibly reminding them to ask questions or seek out additional services.
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Give families a voice in a process that may otherwise seem out of their control
Give MDT members a structured, anonymous way to provide feedback,
show them that you value their opinions.
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MDT members are in a unique position where they can directly see the results of
their participation in OMS.
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Responding to MDT concerns and suggestions, in an anonymous but targeted
way, shows that you care about their opinions, which encourages them to stay
involved in the MDT.
HOW CAN CAC’S USE OMS RESULTS?
Improve Services – Using Results with CAC Staff
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Establish common goals
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Measure outcomes that are necessary and valued by all CAC’s
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Also measure outcomes relevant to your individual Chapter & CAC
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Compare your performance to state and national results
Add your own questions to explore special populations and specific services.
Identify strengths and areas for improvement – prioritize resources
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Find out which parts of your CAC are most valued by caregivers & MDT
members
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Continue or expand effective services
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Provide positive feedback to staff members, raising morale
Fix problems identified by participants
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Improve services with low scores or make decisions to discontinue or scale
back ineffective programs
Give guidance to staff members, use as an opportunity to re-direct work
practices.
REPORTING RESULTS IN FLUIDSURVEYS
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Each CAC can use a report
template generated by NCA
and use these templates to
create their own reports with
many customizable features.
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Reports can then be exported in
many formats (PDF, Word, Excel)
Benchmark performance
against state-wide and
national results
Compare performance to
similar CACs – budget size,
NCA membership status, and
organizational type (for
example, a hospital-based CAC
could compare their results to
all hospital-based CACs
nationwide)
Reports can also be filtered to
look at select groups and
timeframes
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, WANT MORE
INFORMATION?
For most OMS-related questions, contact your Chapter
Especially for state-specific issues or questions about how to
best implement OMS at your center
All requests for additional survey items should be submitted to
your Chapter (items cannot be removed or reworded in most
cases, to preserve the integrity of the surveys)
For technical problems or questions about the
OMS online system – FluidSurveys – or if you have
suggestions about how to improve OMS in the future,
contact Kaitlin
Lounsbury, OMS Coordinator,
at
[email protected]
(202) 548-0090 Ext. 211