Hear from Your Peer: The Who, What, When, Where, and How of Centralized Intake

This webinar will provide an overview of an intake, screening, assessment, and referral process known as centralized, or central, intake. Centralized Intake is typically used in communities that have multiple programs offered within the same service area, serving similar focus populations. Three Healthy Start programs will share how they are using and/or developing centralized intake systems to help identify, screen, and assess families in an effort to enroll them in the program that is best suited for their specific situation and needs. Grantees representing various phases of development and implementation will share their role within the centralized intake system, as well as successes, challenges, and lessons learned.

Webinar Materials:

Community Needs Assessment Risk Assessment

Special Initiative: Implementing Quality Improvement to Advance the Healthy Start Agenda – Introducing the Quality Improvement Peer Learning Network (QIPLN) Initiative

In an effort to support the Healthy Start Community to achieve the Healthy Start benchmark to establish a quality improvement and performance monitoring process, the EPIC Center will be launching 6-7 peer learning networks (PLNs) each targeting a Healthy Start benchmark. The PLNs will be co-facilitated by members from the Healthy Start Grantee Community and the EPIC Center. Participating Healthy Start programs will identify a Healthy Start benchmark to target for improved performance, form a quality improvement (QI) team at their service site, engage agency administrators in their efforts, develop and implement a QI project plan, and identify and collect performance measures for monitoring impact. QIPLNs will meet on a monthly basis for nine months (February – October). Participating Healthy Start programs will identify two QI Leads to attend monthly QIPLN calls from February to October and to facilitate a QI team to design and implement a QI project at their agency. QIPLN meetings will afford participants the opportunity to collaborate and share their experiences, the strategies they are testing, their QI goals and objectives, and their progress with peers.

Webinar Materials

Quality Improvement

Special Initiative: Healthy Start Screening Tools Launch

Recognizing the importance of articulating a conceptual framework and science base for the long-term sustainability of the Healthy Start program, HS CoIIN members expressed a majority interest in focusing HS CoIIN efforts on identifying opportunities for standardizing elements of the program.

Screening has always been a fundamental component of Healthy Start services, and provides an important starting point for Healthy Start’s case management approach.  A common, standardized screening approach will help to ensure comprehensive and consistent assessment of participants’ needs across all Healthy Start programs.

For the past nine months, the Healthy Start CoIIN composed of 20 HS grantees from all corners of the country, has been hard at work developing a standardized risk screening approach to be used by all HS programs with all HS participants.

Feedback from the entire Healthy Start community is ESSENTIAL and NECESSARY to make these screening tools the best they can be so they can fully represent the core strengths of the Healthy Start program. Don’t miss the opportunity to review these tools from your perspective serving HS participants.

Have your Say! Screening Tools Comment Period Jan. 12-29, 2016

Process for Submission of Feedback: 

Please review the draft screening tools with all staff involved in screening participants. After reviewing the tools, work as a team to summarize and submit your organization’s feedback. We will accept one feedback form per Healthy Start program.

Each screening tool has a separate comment form. If you need to return to a previous page that you have already completed, please use the “Prev” button at the bottom of each page (rather than the internet back arrow at the top of the screen).  This will avoid any internet-based hiccups. The format of each comment form is the same and includes evaluation criteria along with an invitation to participate as a pilot testing site. The pilot testing is scheduled for March for CoIIN and April for non-CoIIN members.

Thank you for reviewing and participating in the comment period for the screening tools. Your feedback is an important part of ensuring the quality and utility of the tools.  The comment period will be open from January 12 through midnight January 29, 2016.

Webinar Description:
The CoIIN Co-Chairs will review the screening tool development process and present the six (6) different screening tools to the audience, reviewing the purpose and target audience for each tool.
Get your first look at the new screening tools! Healthy Start CoIIN co-chairs Gwen Daniels and Sara Kinsman will:
  • Describe the process followed by the HS CoIIN to develop the set of six screening tools;
  • Provide an overview of each screening tool, its scope, and which participants it applies to; and
  • Introduce the online form grantees will use to give feedback and suggestions on the new screening tools.

Webinar Materials:

Project Scope Risk Assessment

Healthy Start Regional Meeting (MA, CT, NY)

Meeting Materials:

Father/Partner Involvement Program evaluation Shared Measurement

Healthy Start Regional Meeting (OH, PA, MI)

Meeting Materials:

Program evaluation Quality Improvement

Healthy Start Regional Meeting (NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)

Meeting Materials:

Father/Partner Involvement Participant Recruitment and Retention Quality Improvement

Ask the Expert: FIMR & PPOR: Amazing Data Processes to Help Healthy Start Sites Improve Population Health

Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) is a community-owned and action oriented process to improve service systems and resources for women, infants and families.  This evidence based process examines fetal and infant deaths, determines preventability, and engages community to take action. The focus of FIMR is to determine system gaps that contributed to the fetal or infant death.

Perinatal Periods of Risk (PPOR) is a comprehensive approach to help communities use data to reduce infant mortality. Designed for use in US cities with high infant mortality rates, PPOR brings community stakeholders together to build consensus and partnership based on local data. PPOR provides an analytic framework and steps for investigating and addressing the specific local causes of high fetal and infant mortality rates and disparities.  Initial analyses are based only on vital records data (births, deaths, and fetal deaths); later steps utilize all available sources of data and information.

Meeting Materials:

Quality Improvement

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