Measure 9.2.2 A Implement quality improvement activities

Local health departments in Washington state monitor the quality of the Vaccine for Children program to ensure vaccines administered by the private sector maintain high quality and immunization rates improve. To eliminate redundancies, decrease inconsistencies between staff and improve clarity of...

A local health department noted a high rate of early post-partum unintended pregnancies among women in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and used QI to identify three interventions to reduce the rate.

Denver Health used rapid cycle improvement to implement a brief tobacco cessation intervention (2As &R) in a high risk urban family planning and sexual health clinic. The intervention was enhanced by modifications to the electronic medical record system. They plan to spread this intervention...

A systematic 9- step approach to manage access to prenatal care was the key to improving access to medical exams within the first 2 weeks of a positive pregnancy test. This systematic approach removed previous barriers that caused a delay in the process from pregnancy testing to initial medical...

This northern Kentucky health department wanted to increase the percentage of properly licensed mobile food vendors to correct unsafe food handling and prevent foodborne illness related to mobile food vendors such as food trucks. With the large light-industry and numerous warehouses located...

Through several PDCA cycles, the Madison County Health Department was able to increase revenue from billable service fees in two program areas -- one by 13% and the other by 16%. The process improvements gradually will be applied to all direct service program areas, followed by other improvements...

By engaging health department staff across all divisions in the process of developing proactive media messages based on local health needs and priorities, the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department was able to improve its provision of timely, needed public health information to the community.

The CT DPH innovatively improved its ability to collect and report sociodemographic information, so health disparities could be identified throughout the state and efforts could be taken to improve population health and better address health inequities.

The public health community has lagged in using digital communications to make its presence and services delivered known to the general public. Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale County Health Departments found that creating a better experience and better information for website visitors was better...

Although located in an area with significant need for teen family planning services, a public health teen clinic in Spartanburg County had low rates of use. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control followed a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) approach and used QI tools to understand...

Fast and effective investigations into foodborne illness outbreaks are an important part of a food safety program because they reduce the time that people are exposed to a pathogen. Toledo-Lucas County reduced the cycle time for an effective investigation and closure of foodborne outbreak cases...

Even the implementation of evidence-based public health interventions poses challenges for most health departments. Using rapid-cycle tools and regular status monitoring, Cleveland County Health Department dramatically improved completion of the 5A’s smoking cessation service.

Wisconsin’s Prenatal Care Coordination (PNCC) program has been shown to decrease low-birth weight among single women, increase family support and involvement of the father, decrease preeclampsia, and decrease smoking among pregnant women. Clark County health department used QI to achieve 100%...

By improving its grant application process, the Bethlehem Health Bureau increased the success rate of funded grant applications and increased the amount of grant funding received. The improved process now enables the organization to better meet the needs of the community it serves.

By improving processes in its WIC program, the Wood County Health Department has made WIC education more accessible to clients, increased client satisfaction, and freed up staff time to complete other work assignments.

St. Croix County Public Health nurses were concerned that the time needed to complete required paperwork was taking them away from serving postpartum mothers and newborn babies. To put clients first, they conducted a quality improvement initiative that reduced the time for documentation by 37%....

SRHD reduced the number of water recreation facilities with violations that required re-inspection, resulting in better efficiency and reduced risk of illness and injury among community members.

This health department found the root cause of the high HIV clinic “no show” to be out of date patient contact information. They developed a simple and timely patient contact update process that dropped the “no show” rate dramatically in 8 weeks.

The health department was concerned about a falling rate of visits by homeless people to the federally funded Health Care for Homeless project despite an increase in the homeless population. They investigated the causes and made several changes including implementing a process for walk-in service...

In order to improve client satisfaction and increase the efficiency of WIC visits, this medium size local health department used QI to improve their Open Access appointment system. They were able to reduce the time for a complete WIC visit by 25% and increase participant satisfaction to 96%.

An urban local health department found that 35% of mid-level staff did not know who to contact for questions about new department programs and services. This workforce development QI project led to development of a common resource packet that enabled staff to respond more quickly and effectively...

The Alabama state health department trained local health department family planning clinic staff in QI. The QI tools provided helped staff analyze current procedures and identify service delivery bottlenecks and then design interventions resulting in increased capacity and a reduction in waiting...

By implementing more accurate Medicaid billing procedures that resulted in an increase in Medicaid match revenue, the local health department was able to re-direct funds to necessary departmental strategic priorities that benefit the health of the local community.

The county health department used a QI planning approach to improve their planning processes for community meetings resulting in the community becoming more involved in improving its own health.