A large urban public health department interested in improving community based outcomes, initiated a quality improvement effort. This presentation will highlight the effort to implement process improvement in the maternal child home visiting program and the childhood lead prevention program. The Medical Director initiated and sponsored this effort, and represented senior leadership on the team. The key steps in this effort include engaging senior leadership, selecting the pilots, identifying and building the teams, and recognizing and working within the organizational culture. Skill enhancement and attitude change were necessary to accomplish these tasks. Skill building included: team building, meeting management, understanding the quality improvement methodology and the management skills of leadership, coaching and facilitation. Attitude realignments included working through the initial resistance of 'we don't have time for this' and 'what's your real agenda'. Time was the major resource requirement. Coaches and improvement team members maintained current workloads, while allocating time for this pilot project. Consultants with an in-depth knowledge and experience in quality improvement had to be identified, and were essential to maximize internal organizational resources. The presentation will include results of the pilot quality improvement effort to improve community-based outcomes. This is done by improving program systems and processes, and increasing program efficiency without increasing program costs beyond the initial expense for training and consultation.
Learning Objectives: 1) Identify the key steps to initiate a quality improvement process. 2) Describe the skills and attitudes necessary to initiate a quality improvement process. 3) Recognize and leverage required resources
Keywords: Quality Improvement, Performance Measurement
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.