News
Three States Join Effort to Improve Vision Screenings
As part of the Improving Children's Vision: Systems, Stakeholders & Support initiative, NICHQ and The National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH), have selected three states to participate in the collaborative aimed at making improvements in the systems supporting children's vision and eye health, with a special focus on reducing the prevalence of vision problems in hard-to-reach populations of young children.
Arizona, Ohio and Wyoming will join the three year Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded project led by NICHQ and the NCCVEH.
“We’re excited about this collaboration and committed to supporting these states to increase the proportion of children aged 5 years and younger who receive vision screening and diagnosis by 20 percent by 2018,” says NICHQ Director of Programs, Meghan Johnson, MSc. “We’re confident that NICHQ’s expertise in quality improvement and leading multi-state virtual learning collaboratives will help these teams reach this important goal.”
The project will employ quality improvement principles and practices to implement systems-level changes that will:
- Strengthen statewide partnerships and coordination among key stakeholders in children’s vision and eye health
- Increase access to and utilization of vision health services in hard to reach communities
- Increase early detection and treatment of vision problems
- Establish state-level surveillance approaches
- Implement vision health system measures of accountability
“We look forward to working closely with our new partners in Arizona, Ohio and Wyoming to help ensure our children are given the sight-saving services they need to put them on a path to a lifetime of healthy vision,” said Hugh R. Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “We also thank the NICHQ for their leadership and efforts in creating and implementing this important program.”
