Lessons learned from Kentucky local health department quality improvement mini-grantees

Thirteen Kentucky local health departments (LHD) were selected by the Kentucky Department of Public Health, Center for Performance Management, to receive $5000 grants for the initiation or continuation of short-term quality improvement (projects). Mini-grantees were notified on May 31, 2012 of their awards with final project reports were due on October 15, 2012. Grantees included six single-county LHDs, one city-county LHD and six multi-county district LHDs from all geographic regions of the state. Through collaboration with University of Kentucky College of Public Health faculty, a utilization-focused evaluation was performed with stated goal of harvesting lessons learned in the field for initiation and continuation of quality improvement projects. The thirteen mini-grantees were evaluated utilizing final project reports and a qualitative survey of the quality improvement team leaders to assess, in a Plus/Delta format, the use of grant funds, quality improvement methodology used, staff time involved in the project, satisfaction with project results, barriers to success of the quality improvement team project aims and other knowledge gained during the quality improvement process. Results of the utilization-focused evaluation in the form of a “Lessons Learned White Paper” will be distributed to Kentucky Local Health Departments via the Kentucky Accreditation Coordinators Learning Community and included as team information in the future quality improvement mini-grant awards.