The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #49820

Teddy Milder, PNP, PHN¹, Linda Cosgrove², Elaine E. Conley, RN, MPH³, and Gary Oliver². (1) Alameda County Children and Families Commission, 1850 Fairway Drive, San Leandro, CA 94577, 510-667-7892, tmilder@co.alameda.ca.us, (2) Alameda County Public Health Department, 1000 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607, (3) Office of the Director, Alameda County Public Health Department, 1000 Broadway, Suite 500, Oakland, CA 94607

In 1998, the California voters passed The California Children and Families First Act, Proposition 10 (a tobacco tax), creating a tremendous opportunity to provide resources for children 0 to 5 years of age and their families. The Alameda County Children and Families Commission was the first Commission in the state to approve its strategic plan, Every Child Counts (ECC), in December 1999. Every Child Counts developed and implemented a web-based cross-agency information system, ECChange, to facilitate case management of ECC funded services and inform the accountability framework mandated by Proposition 10. Steps to develop ECChange included: performing a county–wide information system assessment, partnering with private, public and non-profit organizations to develop specifications and data sharing agreements, implementing a confidentiality and privacy policy and building a platform-independent system that would serve the functional and reporting needs of all partnering agencies. ECChange functionality includes: wireless connectivity in hospitals to enroll newborns and families into ECC family support programs, electronic transfer of referrals to public health nurses, use of mini-laptops in the field by public health nurses to document family support services in the home, and management and reporting functions. Both the development of ECChange and a live demonstration of this exciting system will be presented.

Learning Objectives: