228307 Collaborative leadership strategies to implement and evaluate a preterm prevention program

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Katrina Thompson, MSW , State Director of Program Services, Kentucky March of Dimes, Lexington, KY
Joy Marini, MSPA-C , Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute, New Brunswick, NJ
Karen Mandel, MSW , Office of the Medical Director, March of Dimes, White Plains, NY
Diane M. Ashton, MD, MPH , Office of the Medical Director, March of Dimes, White Plains, NY
Karla Damus, PhD, MSPH, RN, FAAN , Bouve College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Ruth Ann Shepherd, MD, FAAP, CPHQ , Department for Public Health, Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Frankfort, KY
Julie Solomon, PhD , J. Solomon Consulting, LLC, Mountain View, CA
Preterm birth, the number one cause of newborn death and infant morbidity in the US, impacts health throughout life. Yet despite decades of research and prevention programs, the rates have increased 20% since 1990 and annually about 1-in-8 infants (>540,000) are born premature. An innovative 3-year (2007-2009) ecological design program in Kentucky, Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait (HBWW), tackled this issue in 6 geographically disparate sites. To plan, implement and evaluate HBWW it was essential to leverage resources and support from state and local public health departments, hospitals, clinicians, public health workers, public relations, media, hospital administration, the Kentucky Perinatal Association (KPA), professional organizations (AWHONN, ACOG), and local and national March of Dimes. Key to program administration were biweekly meetings of the leadership team (the Executive Program Board, with key membership from the partners- March of Dimes, Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute, and the Kentucky Department for Public Health; and the program director, evaluator, administrator, manager, field coordinator and communications/media expert). On a monthly basis, team leaders from the clinical intervention sites participated, and quarterly meetings included the local public health department team leaders from the intervention sites. Other resources/tools included: the program extranet with restricted access to all HBWW documents, materials, minutes of meetings, and presentation and evaluation materials; a program website; biannual Site Councils; scholarships for continuing education participation; presentations about the program at state and national meetings; regular newsletters; daily emails. Challenges, successes, lessons learned and recommendations from the collaborative HBWW initiative will be presented.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health administration or related administration

Learning Objectives:
List 2 successful strategies to implement HBWW which required both clinical and public health participation. Discuss how to overcome communication obstacles in the administration of a program encompassing geographically diverse sites and various agencies.

Keywords: Collaboration, Communication

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I am a social worker, the State Program Director for the March of Dimes Kentucky Chapter and I have been the HBWW Program Manager for the past 3 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.