News and Events

Register Now: Academic Health Department Learning Community Virtual Meeting

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 - The Academic Health Department (AHD) Learning Community will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday, June 23, 2016 from 3-4pm EDT. During this meeting, Learning Community member and AHD Mentorship Program Chair Bryn Manzella, MPH, will speak about Jefferson County (AL) Department of Health's AHD partnerships, its recent AHD activities and accomplishments, and how its AHD partnerships have helped in achieving accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board. Click here to register now.

Register Now: NACCHO Annual Conference!

Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - Don't miss your chance to attend the 2016 NACCHO Annual Conference, July 19-21 in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference will be the largest gathering of local health department leaders and other public health professionals in the United States! Learn more about the conference and register here.

New PHQIX Drawing Begins!

Thursday, June 2, 2016 - PHQIX is excited to announce the launch of our latest drawing! To enter the drawing to win one of our great prizes, simply comment on a QI initiative or post or comment in the Community Forum by July 1st, 2016.

Register Now for Upcoming PHSSR Webinar!

Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - Register now for PHSSR's upcoming webinar, Improving the Efficiency of Newborn Screening from Collection to Test Results, on June 23 from 12 to 1 p.m. EST: "Newborn screening (NBS) programs require timely interaction of clinical care and public health systems to avoid delays in treatment, serious preventable complications and death. Investigators from the University of Michigan seek to gather evidence to inform policy decisions on state NBS programs to achieve cost effective and efficient NBS specimen collection, transport and processing. Obtaining timely NBS test results requires effective process implementation within and interaction between hospitals, transport systems and public health laboratories. This project will deploy a multidisciplinary team of public health practitioners and newborn screening programmatic staff, as well as researchers in health services, quality improvement and operations management, to help fill the data gaps on timeliness of NBS test results." Learn more about this webinar and register here!

New QI Video Highlights Santa Clara County, CA!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - Rapid response to new Salmonella cases is critical to decreasing the spread of disease and reducing the likelihood of an outbreak. The Santa Clara County Public Health Department in California used the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC)/Six Sigma approach to identify the root causes of "slow down" in the response time for Salmonella cases, cutting the time to investigation in half. To learn more about their success, check out the video at the bottom of the PHQIX homepage and read more about this QI initiative here.

QI Innovator Award Winner: Seth Kidder, MPH

Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - It is our pleasure to honor Seth Kidder, from the Lake County Health Department & Community Health Center in Illinois, as a public health QI innovator. Congratulations, Seth!

What makes Seth Kidder a QI innovator?

Seth Kidder, assessment and planning coordinator at Lake County Health Department & Community Health Center in Illinois, exemplifies excellence and leadership by collaborating with others and working diligently to create an agency QI culture. In 2012, Seth tackled the momentous task of developing an agency-wide performance management (PM) system and QI program spanning four service areas. Using his attention to detail and tactical awareness, Seth led staff in a new process of selecting performance measures, creating a PM system, and ensuring QI integration across 41 programs.

Seth helped staff navigate the learning curve and taught them how to measure their work for success. He engages staff across all levels to develop data-driven, upstream, and impactful QI efforts. His unique, tenacious way of approaching challenges makes him an asset to the county and the field of public health.

Seth’s creativity and organizational skills allowed for the creation of a novel community health status assessment. This unique assessment used an internally designed research methodology and is being evaluated within the agency, rather than an external organization. Seth always asks the right questions: Are we discovering and using new ways to get the job done? Are we being efficient and effective? Are we doing things right?

PHQIX Twitter Chat Today!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016 - Join us today at 12pm EST for a twitter chat. We will be discussing tools, resources, and promising practices in public health quality improvement. It’s easy to join the conversation; just use #QITogether when you tweet!