PICK Chart
June 27, 2014
Where do we begin? This is often the question when improvement teams must choose a process improvement project from among several worthy candidates. A PICK chart is used to rank projects by considering their level of difficulty (the amount of scarce resources required) and the level of payoff (the improvement...
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Performance Management Toolkit
June 19, 2014
Performance management is a systematic process that helps an organization achieve its mission and strategic goals. The Public Health Foundation (PHF) produces and provides resources and tools, including case stories, white papers, and customized technical assistance, that can help individuals and organizations...
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Houston Uses QI to Improve PHAB Documentation
June 16, 2014
As a grantee in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII), the Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS) provided quality improvement (QI) training to employees in the department using the Public Health Foundation (PHF) Train-the-Trainer...
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Population Health Driver Diagram to Increase Use of Oral Health Care
May 28, 2014
With funding from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) led an effort to develop a Population Health Driver Diagram to Increase Use of Oral Health Care. A population health driver diagram identifies...
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Selecting Quality Improvement Team Members
April 21, 2014
The success of any quality improvement (QI) endeavor depends on the team working on it. It is not the number of people, but rather how well they function and work together, that makes a team successful. QI team members must respect each other, and share common goals, a vision, agendas, and timelines...
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SCAMPER Technique
April 21, 2014
SCAMPER Technique is a process improvement tool that helps teams improve existing processes or create new ones. Introduced in Michael Michalko’s book Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques, the SCAMPER Technique is presented here as a supplement to the Public Health Foundation (PHF)...
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Visualizing Your Organization’s QI Culture Growth: A QI Culture Map
December 6, 2013
While the culture of an organization is difficult to observe, its impacts reverberate at all levels of operation. Organizations that desire a Quality Improvement (QI) Culture need all employees focused on customer satisfaction, excellent services, and continuous improvement. As efforts to foster these...
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From Good to Great: Using QI to Standardize Prescription for Health
October 30, 2013
Staff at Washtenaw County Public Health (WCPH) in Michigan used grants from the Michigan Department of Community Health and the Kresge Foundation to create the Prescription for Health program. The goal was to improve access to local and affordable produce by building connections among primary care,...
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Rhode Island Uses Quality Improvement to Prepare for Domain 8
September 3, 2013
While quality improvement (QI) takes center stage in the Public Health Accreditation Board’s (PHAB) Domain 9, QI has an important role to play throughout the accreditation cycle. This case story shows how one state health department learned and applied QI to help prepare the department for Domain 8,...
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Using a Driver Diagram to Target Optimal Antibiotic Use in Independence, MO
August 22, 2013
In 2012, the Independence Health Department (Independence, Missouri) began participating in an Antibiotic Stewardship Program organized by the Public Health Foundation (PHF). Promoting optimal antibiotic use through both the public health and healthcare systems, PHF’s Public Health Antibiotic Stewardship...
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