Launch of National PH QI 101 Program Takes off in New Hampshire

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• Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 March 2013 18:55

On November 28-30th 2012, the Center for Public Health Quality hosted its first its national Public Health QI 101 Program workshop with the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services.   The two-day workshop took place at the New Hampshire Hospital Association and five teams with a total of 27 participants attended the training.  Their overall project aims include:

• New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories team will focus on improving the submission and receipt of unknown substances to the Public Health Laboratories.
• The Infectious Disease Prevention, Investigation and Care Services section team will focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of outreach to New Hampshire healthcare consumers and providers.
• The Grants and Budget Management team will focus on improving the process by which program managers get the information they need to better manage their program budgets.
• The Oral Health Program team will focus on improving the collection and transmission process of daily fluoride monitoring data for the purpose of optimizing fluoridation in 12 public water systems.
• New Hampshire WIC Program team will focus on expanding their outreach efforts and increase efficiency in diabetes prevention efforts leading to improved outcomes for WIC participants.

During the two days participants learned how to build a collaborative learning environment, learned additional QI tools and methods, created measurement plans and started collecting baseline data.  In addition, teams were empowered to come together an develop an action plan for next steps to make continue to make their processes more efficient and effective.

The two-day workshop for participants was followed by a day long planning session with the NH state health director and senior staff.  During the planning session, leaders were brought up to speed on all the impressive progress the teams were making and together brainstormed ideas as to how their agency could support and grow a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI). 

“It was great to have professional training for the staff. I appreciate the real time, real effort projects selected by the teams," commented one senior sponsor.  

The next phase of the training programs will be another workshop that will take place on February 6-7th for the five teams involved in the program.  At the next workshop teams will learn additional QI tools and methods, how to conduct small steps of change and spread QI throughout their agency.

Stay tuned for updates on New Hampshire QI 101 Program in future newsletters!