Piloting a Statewide Home Visiting Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative.

Objective To pilot test a statewide quality improvement (QI) collaborative learning network of home visiting agencies. Methods Project timeline was June 2014-May 2015. Overall objectives of this 8-month initiative were to assess the use of collaborative QI to engage local home visiting agencies and to test the use of statewide home visiting data for QI. Outcome measures were mean time from referral to first home visit, percentage of families with at least three home visits per month, mean duration of participation, and exit rate among infants <6 months. Of 110 agencies, eight sites were selected based on volume, geography, and agency leadership. Our adapted Breakthrough Series model included monthly calls with performance feedback and cross-agency learning. A statewide data system was used to generate monthly run charts. Results Mean time from referral to first home visit was 16.7 days, and 9.4% of families received ≥3 visits per month. Mean participation was 11.7 months, and the exit rate among infants <6 months old was 6.1%. Agencies tested several strategies, including parent commitment agreements, expedited contact after referral, and Facebook forums. No shift in outcome measures was observed, but agencies tracked intermediate process changes using internal site-specific data. Agencies reported positive experiences from participation including more frequent and structured staff meetings. Conclusions for Practice Within a pilot QI learning network, agencies tested and measured changes using statewide and internal data. Potential next steps are to develop and test new metrics with current pilot sites and a larger collaborative.

Using quality improvement to promote implementation and increase well child visits in home visiting.

A key goal of home visiting is to connect children with medical homes through anticipatory guidance regarding recommended well child care (WCC). Substantial barriers to WCC among low socioeconomic families can limit achievement of this outcome. Quality improvement strategies have been widely adopted in healthcare but only recently implemented in home visiting to achieve program outcomes. The objective of this initiative was to increase the percentage of infants enrolled in home visiting who completed at least 3 recommended WCC visits in the first 6 months of life within a large, multi-model program comprised of 11 sites. A series of 33 quality improvement cycles were conducted at 3 sites involving 18 home visitors and 139 families with infants in the target age range. These were deployed sequentially, and changes within and across sites were monitored using trend charts over time. Adopted strategies were then implemented program-wide. Initiatives focused on staff training in WCC recommendations, data collection processes, monthly family tracking reports, and enhanced communication with primary care offices. Data were shared in iterative sessions to identify methods for improving adherence. Wide baseline variability across sites was observed, with the percentage of infants with recommended care ranging from 35% to 83%. Over the project timeline, the percentage of infants receiving at least 3 WCC visits in the first 6 months increased from 58% to 86%. Quality improvement within home visiting can be used to improve WCC adherence and provides an example of maximizing implementation of home visiting interventions.