Use of data to drive improvement in program performance and participant outcomes is a hallmark of the MIECHV program at the national, state, and local levels.
Florida MIECHV is committed to the principles of continuous quality improvement (CQI) and supports state and community efforts to improve the effectiveness of the support and services provided to families with young children.
CQI is an integral part of FL MIECHV activities. In CQI, data are used to identify a program’s strengths, challenges and opportunities for improvement, which are then tested, refined, incorporated into practice, and re-examined over time.
CQI is a structured process. FL MIECHV uses Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and the Breakthrough Series Model (BSM) to guide its work with local implementation sites
CQI State Team
CQI at the state level is overseen by the state CQI Team, which assists in the development of an annual state CQI Plan, monitors performance data, and makes recommendations on topics for statewide attention.
The mission of the state MIECHV CQI team is to:
Create a culture of quality using data to improve home visiting services and programs for Florida families and communities.
See where we want to go with CQI
See who’s on the team
Health Equity CoIIN
Florida has 4 teams participating in the Health Equity Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network (CoIIN). The goal of the CoIIN is to develop a framework that is evidence-based, feasible, actionable, and has the potential to support MIECHV awardees to advance health equity in home visiting. A key aspect of the framework is a focus on factors that are modifiable by MIECHV-funded programs and staff so that recommendations included in the framework are actionable.
Team Testing
LIAs are currently testing topics of their choice. Most teams have chosen to work on family engagement, as they continue to adapt to a more virtual world. Other teams have chosen to focus on specific performance outcomes — such as developmental screenings and safe sleep — or job satisfaction. Teams will meet regularly for shared learning opportunities and to discuss their successes and challenges.
Past Learning Collaboratives
Coordinated Intake & Referral
In 2017, Florida MIECHV completed a successful Learning Collaborative working with ten local Healthy Start Coalitions to test community approaches to implementing Coordinated Intake & Referral (CI&R) for at-risk families using the state’s universal prenatal and infant screening process.
Participating sites included:
- Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County
- NE Florida Healthy Start Coalition (Duval)
- Healthy Start Coalitions of Orange, Osceola & Seminole
- Healthy Start Coalition of Flagler & Volusia
- Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee
- Healthy Start of NC Florida Coalition (Alachua)
- Healthy Start Coalition of Jefferson, Madison & Taylor Counties
- Healthy Start Coalition of Bay, Franklin & Gulf County
The coalitions worked together over a 20-month period to craft strategies for making home visiting a “hub” of local place-based early childhood systems. The goal is for families to receive the best services for their needs as well as to minimize duplication of services, ensure effective use of local resources, and collectively track what happens to each family.
Participating sites organized a local team, including the Healthy Start Coalition, the local Health Department responsible for processing screening forms, Healthy Families Florida, Federal Healthy Start, Early Head Start, MIECHV-funded home visiting program, Early Steps, additional care coordination, education and support programs, and other key stakeholders.
The CI&R Learning Collaborative was recognized by the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) as a Promising Practice and included in its Innovation Station in 2018.
Based on the results of this learning collaborative, the Florida Department of Health expanded coalition contracts statewide in 2018-19 to include CI&R as a required activity.
Home Visiting
Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network
Florida MIECHV is actively involved in the national Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (HV CoIIN). From May 2014 through August 2016, two local implementation sites (Pinellas PAT and Northeast Florida NFP) participated in the first national learning collaborative. In 2019, state MIECHV staff is serving as faculty for the Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Learning Collaborative organized as part of HV COIIN 2.0.
The national HV CoIIN is the first initiative using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series Model to close the gap and improve critical outcomes for families.
Intimate
Partner
Violence
Florida MIECHV launched its inaugural CQI Learning Collaborative in 2015-16. The 18-month effort Knowledge, practice and performance among MIECHV sites in addressing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) were positively impacted by statewide CQI efforts, according to a new evaluation report. The initiative, which aimed to improve performance on HRSA required benchmarks, included three learning sessions, periodic webinars on specific IPV topics, and program implementation of continuous quality improvement (CQI) methods (plan, do, study, act [PDSA] cycles) to test program improvements.
Results
Supporting
Child Development
Florida’s Supporting Child Development Learning Collaborative began in February 2017. Local MIECHV-funded home visiting programs, with the support of state-level staff, focused their improvement efforts on developmental screening, surveillance, and referrals through February 2018.
Results