Decision Making Strategy Utilizing Priority Setting and Program Data

Formative evaluations, that is recurring evaluations which are primarily intended to yield information on the effectiveness of a program's activities, can be especially valuable to community policymakers.¹ This paper develops a formative evaluation procedure for a community preventive health program. Specifically, the procedure enables one to evaluate the facilities or locations (access points) where the Milwaukee High Blood Pressure Control Program's services are offered. The procedure determines which access points most effectively achieve program objectives, thus providing information to improve program decisions.