I recently wrapped up teaching our intro quality improvement (QI) course, the ABCs of QI, for one of our partners, Family Voices. In the final webinar the participating teams shared the projects that they had worked on, and they reflected on the most useful strategy they learned—the concept of small tests of change. Testing ideas…
Washington state is known for having a low rate of infant mortality—fifth lowest in the U.S. But the state is still actively working on reducing infant mortality even further. In fact, leaders in the state are developing an interesting strategy that targets substance use. “Some relationships are pretty obvious,” says Kathy Ann Chapman, a manager…
Tammy Smith’s daughter, Precious, often got sick as a baby and she cried—a lot. “One time she was holding her arm and we thought it was broken, but it wasn’t. Another time she couldn’t even sit up. She would just cry and cry. The doctors kept giving us medicine, but it didn’t help,” recalls Tammy….
Last week I was sharing some of the exciting work happening in my NICHQ projects with my family and they asked (jokingly) what my boss had against me. You see, I’m expecting my first child in July and they couldn’t imagine how I could enjoy working on projects related to infant mortality. My take is…
Thousands of infants die each year in unsafe sleep conditions. Sadly, the majority of sleep-related deaths are preventable. One innovative and successful approach to reduce these tragedies is to train law enforcement, fire rescue squads and other first responders to educate families about safe sleep habits. “We have access to homes that no one else…
The saying, “if you can make it here you can make it anywhere,” of New York City, holds true for even its youngest members. New York City’s infant mortality rate—4.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in the first year of life—is nearly 30 percent lower than the U.S. rate. What’s the city’s secret? A multi-pronged,…
When kids with sickle cell disease come to an emergency room (ER) asking for painkillers, the care can sometimes be less than ideal. In a busy ER, there can be long wait times, and, especially with an illness like sickle cell disease that has no visual signs of pain, doctors sometimes question whether a patient…
At a recent medical appointment, my teenage daughter and I were offered an opportunity to complete a patient experience survey. My daughter was eager to provide feedback and happily answered the questions thoughtfully. She likes that movies play in the waiting room and doesn’t like when wait times in the exam room are long. She…
From my recent experience at the Infant Mortality Summits, a meeting of the Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) to Reduce Infant Mortality (Infant Mortality CoIIN), it seems that the time is ripe for the widespread growth of quality improvement (QI) strategies in the public health arena. Prior to the Summits in July, public health leaders…
Compared to other Western countries, infant mortality in the U.S. is shockingly high. High infant mortality is a social problem that can only be solved through massive collaboration and out-of-the-box innovation. To tackle this issue I propose to tap into the “creativity of the swarm,” using collaborative innovation to help parents and caregivers take the…