Between 6-12 months

This big city health department used QI to improve their intake processes and obtained dramatic results in connecting the highest risk people with substance use disorders to existing city services, which in turn results in improved outcomes for individuals who are homeless, have co-occurring health...

Using QI Tools and PDSA leads to significant improvement in the standardization of Final Inspection Reports.

The tribal health department used QI to increase the number of parents using car child seats correctly from 30 to 65% using new dramatic visual presentations and enhanced car safety seat installation demonstrations. This will save children’s lives and reduce auto related injuries.

In an effort to improve customer satisfaction, Carroll County General Health District embarked upon a QI project to decrease waiting time in the reproductive health clinic. Their aim for a 10% reduction in waiting time was nearly achieved by taking a novel approach to addressing the identified...

The Specialty Care clinic at the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County sought to notify clients more quickly of the results from their tests at the sexually transmitted disease clinic. A QI project led to implementation of a confidential no-reply text messaging system which resulted in...

This Michigan Department of Community Health QI project sought to increase the number of grants reaching priority populations in response to requests for proposals (RFP) for tobacco control. The team used a survey to gather data on the biggest barriers to applying for grants that would reach the...

A local health department increased early enrollment of pregnant women in smoking cessation programs to reduce risks of pregnancy complications, premature delivery, and their infants being low-birth weight, stillborn, or dying from SIDS.

This QI project used many QI tools to identify and design improvement actions to increase the redemption of food vouchers by WIC clients. While this project did not achieve the improvement target, , the development and application of tools could be helpful to other community health programs seeking...

Taking the whoop out of a Pertussis outbreak and enhancing a community's pertussis mitigation effort by using improved early identification and isolation outcomes methods to decrease the number of days between onset and the report of disease.

Pregnant women face economic barriers to receipt of pertussis vaccines, increasing risks for infant transmission of the disease. Using PDSA and rapid cycle improvement, the health department partnered with a prenatal care provider to increase Tdap coverage from 1% to 49% of pregnant women whose...

The Harford County Health Department used QI to create a more welcoming environment for limited English proficiency populations by focused staff education, training, and standardization of processes, increasing the use translation services three fold.

WIC enrollment is well below the eligible population in Yellowstone, MT, and a substantial number of those enrolled do not regularly pick up their food coupons, resulting in automatic disenrollment and loss of benefits. Utilizing PDCA, RiverStone Health addressed the root causes of the drop off in...

It has been shown that home visiting and other supportive services provided during pregnancy improve perinatal outcomes. Sullivan County Public Health Services used QI to improve its internal processes for reaching women with high-risk pregnancies, so more mothers and babies can have healthy...

A local health department in rural Wisconsin was missing opportunities to immunize a significant number of teenagers who would potentially benefit from mandated or optional vaccines. They implemented an improvement project to standardize the process and educate staff in order to decrease missed...

Wicomico County had a salmonella infection rate twice as high as the state average. Their QI project found that by focusing on reducing critical violations in retail food service facilities through increasing its outreach and education services to those facilities, the Wicomico County Health...

Local health departments play a critical role in responding to public health emergencies and often test their ability to respond during exercises or drills. One local health department in Illinois used the PDCA cycle to improve its ability to assemble staff in a complete and timely manner during...

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...

Kittitas County Health Department improved their process for Alcohol Drug Dependency Service (ADDS) clients to follow through with Hepatitis C testing so that treatment would be received earlier and the spread of the disease reduced.

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...

In Fillmore County Public Health department, the time from notification to investigation of health problems and environmental health hazards (animal bites, infectious diseases, and nuisances) took longer than desired. Data was collected to understand the current state; investigations ranged from...

The Sedgwick County Health Department improved the quality of the collaborative process related to communication, empowerment, and recruitment of diverse people and organizations so that individuals and organizations critical to the implementation and success of its community's health...

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...

Because surveillance for communicable disease had been provided by the state, the Red Cliff Community health department had limited knowledge of communicable diseases in their community. They used quality improvement to bring communicable disease reporting, surveillance, control and prevention...

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.

This mixed semi-urban and rural county had the lowest rate of kindergartners completely immunized in New York State (89%), with baseline data for the immunization rates among schools in the county ranging from 15.4% to 90%. The QI initiative aimed to improve the immunization rate for children...

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...

Due to decreases in funding, the economic climate, and social determinants of risk behavior in Nevada, the Washoe County Health Department had to be ready to effectively manage any large Sexually Transmitted Disease outbreak with reduced numbers of Sexual Health Program staffing. Using QI processes...

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%...

The Snohomish County Health Dept used QI on its immunization process.. By analyzing causes of error, introducing a new and standardized work flow, and using job aids that help to verify client records and data, the immunization error rate was reduced by over 50%.

The Allegan County Health Department used QI to increase of the percent of department programs that perform client satisfaction surveys from 33 to 81%. As a result valuable feedback from clients is enabling the department to provide services and programs that better meet the needs of its community.

Compliance with required school immunizations rose after completion of a review of school immunization records was coupled with better methods of contacting parents. As a result, both children and the wider community experienced less spread of diseases.

Franklin County Public Health: This QI project sought to improve client satisfaction with Environmental Health programs, focusing for this project on the water quality partnership program. Understanding client satisfaction in programs that are fee-based, such as environmental health, can improve...

TPCHD sped its response time for solid waste complaints, resulting in greater protection of the public’s health, better customer service, and greater accountability to its community members.

Yadkin-County Health department used QI tools and methods decrease the time for notifying clients of abnormal Pap smear results, enabling clients to make informed decisions about follow-up care.

By giving women improved information on the prenatal care program and the WIC program, this collaborative increased entry into prenatal care and participation in WIC, thus promoting healthy birth outcomes in the community and synergy between the two programs.

A quality improvement mini-collaborative in North Carolina focused on developing a workforce development plan to increase public health nurse retention. After doing root cause analysis, the team developed a nurse-mentoring program and measured results after six months.

Access to prenatal care contributes to successful birth outcomes. A Kansas health department found that patients had challenges completing the application process for the Medicaid Children’s Health Insurance Program. By conducting patient education and assistance with the application, the health...

Reducing childhood obesity is a priority for the Oklahoma State Health Department. Staff recognized that children returning for a second year in the afterschool CATCH Kids Club would need a new curriculum and activities to keep them engaged. The Department used QI to design new components and...

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...

Committed to minimizing the health and social impact of pandemic influenza in its jurisdiction, this health department applied continuous quality improvement (CQI) tools and methods to improve the accuracy, effectiveness, and timeliness of its risk communications plan and messages to staff and...

Challenged by undesired delays for clinic appointments, high no-show rates, client dissatisfaction, and suboptimal productivity, Macon County Public used QI to implement an open access clinic appointment system that allowed them to schedule appointments within 72 hours for all clients and all...

This local health department improved participation and contributions by their partners in the community to the Community Health Improvement Plan by 70%, leading to strengthened relationships with and more effective collaborative partnerships to take action to improve the community’s health.