| Course | HLTH 6443 Systems, Policy, and Leadership in Health Informatics |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 6 |
| Paper type | Technology leadership plan |
| Length | 1,270 words, about 5 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | Ed.S. in Public Health Education |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HLTH 6443 Module 6
Phase Two: A Technology Leadership Plan to Close the Referral Loop, Connect Systems and Sustain a County's Community Referral Network
Student Name
American College of Education
HLTH6443: Systems, Policy, and Leadership in Health Informatics
Module 6 Assignment
Instructor Name
July 6, 2026
Purpose
Eighteen months after launch, the referral platform of a composite western Michigan county links 64 agencies with the health department, clinics and school nurses, but only 41% of referrals reach a recorded outcome. The five earlier modules of this course analyzed the system, set its privacy and compliance rules, planned staff training, wrote data protocols and evaluated interoperability. This plan sets out how the health department will lead the platform's second phase over the next two years, as its start-up grant ends. It is written for the county health officer and the network's governance committee.
Goals
The plan has five goals. First, close the loop: raise recorded outcomes from 41% of referrals to 75% by the close of year two. Second, connect systems: complete the clinic app at the health center, a shared resource directory with 211 and status exchange with at least two high-volume agencies. Third, protect families' information: achieve valid consent records on every referral and complete an access audit each quarter with no unresolved findings. Fourth, widen reach: add Arabic and Swahili to consent forms and messages and increase referrals originating in rural townships by half. Fifth, sustain the network: replace grant funding with a shared funding model by the start of year three.
Leading a Network, Not an Organization
The health department does not control the 64 agencies, the clinics or the school district, so the platform's leader must lead through agreements, persuasion and shared benefit rather than authority. Early adopters of referral platforms found that engaging community partners early and treating them as partners, not merely recipients of referrals, was essential to success (Cartier et al., 2020). The plan therefore gives agencies a real voice in decisions, through two elected agency seats on the governance committee and an annual network meeting at which priorities are set, and it makes sure the platform returns value to agencies, such as reports they can use in their own grant applications. A network sustained only by the health department's enthusiasm will not survive the end of the grant; one that agencies see as theirs might.
Readiness and Sequencing
Weiner (2009) ties organizational readiness to two shared conditions: a collective resolve to make a change and collective confidence in being able to. Readiness varies across the network. The health center and the food bank network are committed and capable; small pantries are committed but stretched; the hospital clinics are capable but less committed, since social needs referral is not yet central to their work. The plan sequences work accordingly: early connections and pilots with the most ready partners, practical support for committed but stretched agencies and a business case, focused on reduced emergency visits and readmissions, for less committed ones.
Year One Actions
In the first quarter, the coordinator will complete the training rollout from Module 3 and adopt the protocols from Module 4, and the governance committee will approve written agreements for the first connections. In the second quarter, the clinic app will launch at the health center, monthly batch reporting to the health department will begin and translated consent materials will be released. In the third quarter, the shared directory with 211 will go live, and status exchange with the food bank network will be built and tested. In the fourth quarter, the second agency connection will begin, a rural outreach effort will recruit agencies in the townships and the coordinator will prepare the funding proposal for year three.
Year Two Actions
In the second year, the second agency connection will go live, the hospital clinics will be offered the clinic app with support from the health center's experience and the network will add school districts beyond the first. The governance committee will commission an evaluation linking referral outcomes to health measures. The shared funding model will be negotiated with partners and presented to the county board and health system leaders in the third quarter.
Budget and Sustainability
The two-year budget totals $286,000: platform license, $96,000; the platform coordinator, $104,000; a part-time resource specialist, $36,000; agency connections, $40,000 for two; and training, translation and evaluation, $10,000. The first year is covered by the remaining grant. For the second year and beyond, the plan proposes shared funding: the health department's general fund, the two health systems, which benefit from connected referrals, the county's United Way and a small annual fee from agencies with budgets over $1 million, waived for smaller agencies. Showing value to each funder is essential, which is why the evaluation matters.
Measures
Progress will be tracked quarterly and reported to the governance committee and funders. Process measures include training completion, the share of receiving staff logging in weekly, the median time to accept a referral and the number of active connections. Outcome measures include the proportion of referrals closed with an outcome, overall and for connected versus unconnected agencies, and the share of referrals by language and township. The evaluation in year two will examine whether families whose referrals closed reported fewer unmet needs, building on trial evidence that in-person navigation lowered the number of needs families reported and that caregivers then rated their children's health as better (Gottlieb et al., 2016). Measurement and monitoring are also a dimension of safe health information technology in their own right (Sittig & Singh, 2010).
Communication With the Network
A network of 64 organizations needs regular, predictable communication. Each month, participating agencies will receive a one-page update covering new features, training dates, their own referral figures compared with the network average and any changes to protocols. Each quarter, the governance committee will publish the measures above, including where the network fell short. Agency directors will be invited to a short virtual meeting after each quarterly report to raise concerns. When a connection or feature goes live, the coordinator will visit the affected agencies in person during the first week. Families will see changes through clearer text messages and translated materials rather than announcements. Keeping communication steady matters most in the year the grant ends, when rumors about the platform's future could lead agencies to stop updating referrals before any decision has been made.
Risks
Four risks stand out. If no funding model is agreed before year two ends, the plan's fallback is a reduced license and coordinator time funded by the health department alone, with connections paused. If an agency vendor fails to deliver a connection, funds will shift to the next agency. If a privacy incident occurs, the Module 4 protocols govern the response, and the committee will pause expansion until the cause is fixed. If agencies disengage, the coordinator will hold individual meetings to understand why before adding any requirement.
The Leader's Role and Development
As the health department's health education and informatics lead, my role in this plan is to convene, translate and steward: to bring partners together, to explain technical choices in terms each partner cares about and to protect the network's integrity. To grow into that role, I will seek mentoring from the county's chief information officer, complete training in vendor contract management and ask for structured feedback from agency members of the governance committee each year.
Conclusion
The platform's first phase proved that a county can bring many organizations onto one referral system. Its second phase must prove that referrals end in help, that systems can share data without burdening staff, that families' information is safe and that the network can outlast its first grant. This plan sets out how to lead that work across organizations the health department does not control.
References
Cartier, Y., Fichtenberg, C., & Gottlieb, L. M. (2020). Implementing community resource referral technology: Facilitators and barriers described by early adopters. Health Affairs, 39(4), 662-669. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01588
Gottlieb, L. M., Hessler, D., Long, D., Laves, E., Burns, A. R., Amaya, A., Sweeney, P., Schudel, C., & Adler, N. E. (2016). Effects of social needs screening and in-person service navigation on child health: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(11), Article e162521. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2521
Sittig, D. F., & Singh, H. (2010). A new sociotechnical model for studying health information technology in complex adaptive healthcare systems. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 19(Suppl. 3), i68-i74. https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2010.042085
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4, Article 67. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-67
Reading the HLTH 6443 Module 6 instructions
In the last HLTH 6443 module, expect to write the plan that carries a health information system into its next stage. Prompts typically expect goals, a governance structure, phased actions, resources and budget, measures of success, risks and how the leader will guide people through the change. Let the plan grow out of the earlier modules, and write it for a real decision maker such as a health officer, director or board. Where the system spans organizations, explain how you will lead without direct authority. Sustainability, especially after start-up funding ends, is often a point instructors look for, as is a plan for keeping partners informed while decisions are pending.
Inside the HLTH 6443 Module 6 example
A purpose section states the platform's status and audience. Five measurable goals follow. A section explains the challenge of leading a network rather than an organization, and another applies readiness theory to sequence work across partners. Actions are laid out by quarter for year one and more broadly for year two, with the most ready partners first. An itemized budget is followed by a shared funding model, and a measures section lists process and outcome indicators with an evaluation plan. A communication section sets a monthly and quarterly rhythm for the network, and risks with fallbacks and a short section on the leader's role and development precede the conclusion.
Where the points sit in the HLTH 6443 Module 6 rubric
Leadership plans are generally graded on alignment, specificity and realism. Rubrics tend to reward measurable goals tied to problems identified earlier, actions with time frames and owners, a budget that adds up and measures that show whether goals are met. Attention to governance, stakeholder engagement and sustainability shows specialist-level understanding of how systems survive beyond their launch. Named risks with fallbacks and reflection on the leader's own role distinguish strong plans. APA 7 citations for leadership, implementation and evaluation sources complete a plan a decision maker could approve. Plans that show how partners will be kept informed, including about shortfalls, read as more credible.
HLTH 6443 Module 6 help from the desk
Technology leadership plans often list upgrades without explaining how people will be brought along or how the work will be paid for. If you would like help setting goals, sequencing actions, building a budget or planning for sustainability, a writer can take this on. Share what you wrote in earlier modules together with the prompt; the Module 6 plan that comes back will read as the culmination of your course, with measures and risks a decision maker would expect. If your instructor provides a plan template, the paper will follow it section by section and keep your figures consistent with earlier modules. We can also help you prepare a short summary for executives or a board, drawn from the full plan.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More HLTH 6443 and Ed.S. in Public Health Education sample papers
- HLTH 6443 Module 1: Information System Analysis
- HLTH 6443 Module 2: Policy and Compliance Analysis
- HLTH 6443 Module 3: Staff Technology Training Plan
- HLTH 6443 Module 4: Data Use and Security Protocols
- HLTH 6443 Module 5: Interoperability Evaluation
- HLTH 6403 Module 1: Behavior Change Theory Comparison
- HLTH 6483 Module 6: Research-Based Recommendation
- HLTH 6413 Module 4: Ethics in Practice Analysis
- HLTH 6413 Module 5: Competencies and Roles Paper
HLTH 6443 Module 6 questions, answered
What does HLTH6443 Module 6 usually ask for?
HLTH6443 frequently closes with a technology leadership plan that sets goals, governance, actions, budget, measures and risks for a health information system's next stage.
How is leading a network different from leading an organization?
A network leader usually lacks authority over members, so leadership relies on shared governance, agreements, persuasion and making sure each member gains value.
How can a public health technology project be sustained after a grant?
By demonstrating value to several funders, sharing costs among those who benefit and planning a scaled-down fallback if full funding is not secured.
Where can I find a free HLTH 6443 Module 6 sample paper?
The full Module 6 plan is posted on this page: five goals, a $286,000 two-year budget and a shared funding model for a county's community referral platform.
What measures should a technology leadership plan include?
Process measures such as training and use, outcome measures such as completed referrals and, where possible, measures of benefit to the people served.