The end goal at NICHQ is to achieve better health outcomes for children. To achieve that, we engage parents and families as partners on the improvement journey, because we know that changing a system requires involving those that the system most affects. “We know that parents have perspectives, insights and connections that stakeholders in public health can’t…
Accreditation for health departments has been implemented to standardize the assessment and measurement of performance of public health departments at the state, local and tribal levels. Current efforts and initiatives like the Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality (Infant Mortality CoIIN) often intersect with state efforts to submit accreditation applications, allowing public…
With separate criteria for the meaning of quality, healthcare and public health use QI in specific ways to fit their needs.
Collaboration is the foundation of making substantive improvements in children’s health. Every initiative, even ones that focus on a small community, seeks to create solutions for complex challenges with deep-seated roots. This is why extended partnerships are important to transforming children’s health. At NICHQ, we seek out organizations, experts, and stakeholders who share our mission…
Welcoming new team members is an exciting part of team turnover. While it can be stressful to lose someone with great insight and historical knowledge, a fresh face could help spark some new ideas or momentum in a quality improvement (QI) initiative. The key to ensuring that recent additions to the team become strong contributors…
To improve breastfeeding rates, hospitals throughout New York State are implementing the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, which include evidence-based practices such as skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby immediately after birth and a baby staying in a mother’s hospital room instead of a nursery (referred to as rooming-in). But to ensure that these best…
As a special healthcare need, epilepsy can be difficult to treat because it doesn’t affect every patient the same way. Seizures, a common epileptic symptom, vary in frequency, severity and type between people, which means that healthcare providers need to understand that range of outcomes to create treatment plans. And because epilepsy affects a small…
Early childhood is a crucial period for child development. From birth through age 3, kids can reach significant milestones in language, cognition, approaches toward learning, physical well-being and motor skills, and social and emotional development that can set them up to reach their full potential, specifically optimal developmental health. That’s why there are so many…
While changes are at the heart of quality improvement (QI), using data at every phase of a QI initiative helps inform the progress and outcomes of the work. The information is both a catalyst for change and a result of testing new strategies, making it a crucial element that can’t be ignored at any point….
Better breastfeeding support and education are priorities for many states around the country. Hospitals and care providers are adapting their practices, but they often require help in achieving meaningful and sustainable change. This is in part because there are long established protocols that are difficult to amend or replace. However, collaborative learning and quality improvement…