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Chyanne Morrison:
Hello, and thank you for taking the time to view our poster, “A Collaborative Approach to Addressing Procurement Timeliness: Tennessee’s Targeted Evaluation Project.” My name is Chyanne Morrison, and I’m presenting this work on behalf of our team from the East Tennessee State University’s Center for Rural Health and Research in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Health. This project focuses on understanding and improving the timeliness of procurement within TDH, an issue that became increasingly important following shifts and procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the pandemic, TDH implemented expedited procurement processes to meet urgent public health needs, but once those procedures ended, staff across the agency expressed confusion, frustration, and delays with the return to the standard procurement system. To address this, TDH selected procurement timeliness as one of two targeted evaluation projects under the Public Health Infrastructure Grant. The goal was to better understand what’s working well in the current process, where the bottlenecks exist, and how the experience could be improved for those involved.

We conducted a series of 12 key informant interviews with 13 TDH staff members from both the program and procurement management levels. These interviews, facilitated by our team at ETSU, were designed to gather candid, constructive feedback to analyze interview transcripts. We used a deductive, rapid coding approach to identify patterns and themes that cut across roles, divisions, and responsibilities. Our analysis revealed that respondents across both user groups described the TDHs procurement process as complex and often hindered by inconsistent communication, insufficient training, and limited capacity, particularly in smaller program offices.

Four main themes emerged process, ownership and expectations related to clarifying roles, responsibilities and accountability, interdepartmental collaboration, focused on strengthening communication and coordination across divisions, user experiences related to identifying barriers and improving ease of navigation and desired future state focused on envisioning a more intuitive, efficient and supportive procurement system. While respondents appreciated tools like Caspio, TDH’s internal procurement tracking dashboard, they expressed a strong desire for more streamlined processes, better system integration, and fewer delays caused by approval layers or unclear workflows.

Based on the feedback received, we recommend enhancing training tailored to users’ roles, consolidating resources into accessible platforms, addressing modifiable internal processes to reduce redundancies, and strengthening transparency across departments. Continued investments in Caspio expansion will ensure all users understand the purpose of the platform and its usability. Crucially, this work highlights how involving staff directly and systems-level evaluations fosters engagement, trust, and meaningful change. These efforts also support TDH’s goals for obtaining public health accreditation by aligning with the PHAB’s standards around procurement contracts and financial management. Thank you again for your interest in our work.