"Monitoring data is not just a numbers game.
Behind each number is a Montgomery County resident relying on us to do the right thing."

Montgomery County Executive
Douglas M. Duncan

Outcomes and measures are some of the tools that DHHS' Accountability and Customer Services use to track whether the programs we offer improve the daily lives of residents. We want programs and services that produce results. Our pledge to rely on results-based accountability is more than a catch-phrase: It serves as the cornerstone for efforts to address the needs of our changing community. We have also created a simple way for DHHS program managers to provide monthly program reports for the areas they oversee. The reports, developed recently as another way to measure the effectiveness of our efforts, are scheduled to begin appearing on our Web site soon.

If you need help with some of the terms used in outcomes measurement, you've come to the right place! Discover our definitions for frequently-used terms.

The Outcomes Team has published a number of reports. Keep reading to find out more!

Measuring Progress: A Strategy to Get Results reports on the Department of Health and Human Services’ progress in the continuing effort to measure both the success of our actions as a community and the success of the department’s programs in contributing to the well-being of Montgomery County residents. Focusing on the results we achieve helps guide the difficult choices we must make about how to best invest our resources both within and outside the government.

In our first report, Measuring Progress: Report 1998, the department identified 13 programs to measure, reported community-wide outcomes and measured those outcomes with a set of indicators. Since that initial effort, 40 department programs have successfully identified their key results, selected measures of effectiveness and linked them to the outcomes we seek as a community.

Measuring Progress: A Strategy to Get Results provides background information on the community outcomes and the status of the community’s safety, health and self-sufficiency as reflected in specific community indicators. It also provides in-depth information on department programs, the key results they seek and lists the measures selected to determine whether they are effective in helping the people served achieve safety, health and self-sufficiency.