News and Events

Update on PHQIX Transition

Friday, June 5, 2020 – PHAB has paused its work on the transition of PHQIX. In the meantime:

  • The PHQIX website will remain open to current users for information retrieval.
  • Quality improvement tips, best practices, and so on will be covered in a special section of the PHAB e-newsletter. If PHQIX users are already receiving the PHAB e-newsletter, they will automatically receive that information. PHQIX users who do not currently receive the PHAB e-newsletter can sign up for it free at http://www.phaboard.org/news-room/phabnewsletters/.
  • Submissions to PHQIX will be suspended during this transition time. If a user has questions about quality improvement in public health during this transition, there are multiple resources for quality improvement tools, tips, and models on PHAB’s national partner websites

Thank you for your continued support, engagement, and dedication to quality improvement in public health.

PHQIX Transitions to a New Home and a New Look

Thursday, August 30, 2018 - PHQIX has achieved its initial goals of providing an online platform for connecting public health practitioners, academicians, and researchers who work on quality improvement. PHQIX launched in September 2012 and now has more than 2,500 users.

It’s now time for PHQIX to move to the next phase of supporting the public health field in continuing to work on quality improvement. In fulfilling that next phase, PHQIX will transition to a new online learning platform supported by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). It will take a few months to achieve the full transition, so here is what PHQIX users can expect in the meantime:

  • The PHQIX website will remain open to current users for information retrieval.
  • Quality improvement tips, best practices, and so on will be covered in a special section of the PHAB e-newsletter. If PHQIX users are already receiving the PHAB e-newsletter, they will automatically receive that information. PHQIX users who do not currently receive the PHAB e-newsletter can sign up for it free at http://www.phaboard.org/news-room/phabnewsletters/.
  • Submissions to PHQIX will be suspended during this transition time
  • If a user has questions about quality improvement in public health during this transition, there are multiple resources for quality improvement tools, tips, and models on PHAB’s national partner websites
  • The future PHQIX functions and resources, although administered by PHAB, will not require a health department to be accredited to access them

Thank you for your continued support, engagement, and dedication to quality improvement in public health. It has been a pleasure collaborating with you, and we look forward to the next phase of PHQIX.

New QI Spotlight Article: I Was Just Hired as Performance Improvement Professional - Now What?

Thursday, August 23, 2018 - PHQIX occasionally publishes Spotlight articles that provide practical guidance for conducting QI in public health. Our latest article provides onboarding, development, and advancement tips for new PI professionals.

I Was Just Hired as a Performance Improvement Professional - Now What? 
"For health departments wanting to pursue public health accreditation or simply improve the quality of their services, it is essential to hire an employee dedicated to holding the agency accountable for these efforts. According to the 2016 National Profile of Local Health Departments, only 35% of local health departments had a staff member dedicated to QI. Most people leading an agency's improvement efforts have a large scope, ranging from accreditation to QI to performance management. In this article, we will refer to this role as a performance improvement professional." Click here to read the entire article. 
 
Click here to browse our other QI Spotlight articles.

NACCHO QI Self-Assessment Pilot Test: Your Input Needed

Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - NACCHO is revising the Organizational Culture of Quality Self-Assessment Tool (QI SAT) which was initially released in 2013. This tool is designed to assess an organization's quality improvement (QI) maturity and is based on NACCHO's Roadmap to a Culture of Quality. These tools provide a framework for organizations to identify strengths and areas for improvement across 6 foundational elements of a QI culture. In an effort to continuously improve the tool, NACCHO is working on developing Version 2.0 of the QI SAT, which incorporates public health practitioner and QI expert feedback.

NACCHO is now in the pilot testing phase of this process and is requesting your help to test the revised version. This pilot test is designed for senior leadership and/or QI leaders with the most knowledge and experience with QI in the organization. The pilot test includes 56 diagnostic statements from the QI SAT, a few demographic/background questions about your organization, and some open ended response questions to provide feedback. We anticipate that the survey should take approximately one hour to complete. All the data will be anonymous and will be analyzed in the aggregate to conduct some reliability testing, identify trends, and further improvements. We ask that the respondent be an individual most knowledgeable about QI efforts in your agency. Please only submit one survey per organization. We are disseminating this survey through a variety of mechanisms so apologies in advance if you receive this invitation multiple times.
 
If you are able to participate in this pilot test, you may access the survey at this linkNACCHO is requesting that all responses be submitted by Thursday, August 9. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Pooja Verma at pverma@naccho.org.Thank you in advance for your consideration in this important step in our process. We look forward to releasing Version 2.0 of this tool in September 2018!

New QI Initiative!

Thursday, July 12, 2018 - Check out this new QI initiative! 

Decreasing Staff Burden by Streamlining the Phone Tree System
Maricopa County Department of Public Health used QI methods to achieve a 90% decrease in callers to the health department who selected the "zero-out" option (transfer of call to a live operator), thereby freeing staff time to focus on other projects and ensuring that more callers quickly and easily reach the area of the department that they are seeking. Continue reading hereClick here to search our database of QI initiatives. 

New QI Initiatives!

Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - Check out these two newly published QI initaitives! 

Improving Sexually Transmitted Disease and Viral Hepatitis Screening among Ryan White Clients 
The Wyoming Department of Health discovered a low rate of screening of Ryan White clients for STDs and hepatitis. Staff did a series of rapid PDSAs to improve the rate of screening and detection, and they are continuing to test further modifications to obtain even better results. Continue reading here
 
Improving Immunization Data Entry Timeliness into the State Registry
The number of flu vaccines provided by Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health has risen greatly, with many flu vaccination sites around the rural county. As the number of vaccines rose, the ability to enter the vaccines into the state immunization registry fell, and 57% of flu vaccines were not entered within 7 days of vaccination. A comprehensive QI project identified multiple causes, and multiple process changes were implemented, resulting in a rate of only 1.34% not entered within 7 days, exceeding the goal. Continue reading here
 
Click here to search our database of QI initiatives. 

New QI Spotlight Article! Quality Planning: A Quick "How-To" Guide

Thursday, June 21, 2018 - PHQIX occasionally publishes Spotlight articles that provide practical guidance for conducting QI in public health. We just published a new Spotlight article that can serve as a quick "How-To" guide for quality planning. 

Quality Planning: A Quick "How-To" Guide
"QI is about improving the process that supports a product, service, or outcome. The lack of a standardized process is often the root of a team's difficulties, resulting in fluctuations that can affect the quality of the process output. For health departments beginning the journey to accreditation, a culture of quality, or a quest to document policies and procedures, it is not at all uncommon to discover that many processes are not known, much less used as standard practice. This type of deficiency could be identified in any number of scenarios, including when a health department embarks on a QI effort." Click here to read the entire article. 
 
Click here to browse our other QI Spotlight articles. 

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