QI Culture

The Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health (CGCDPH) used PDSA to improve its process for applying for grants and involving all staff in understanding the process.

Tazewell County Health Department (TCHD) followed a Kaizen QI process to decrease the time for completing the deposit and receipt process for fee revenue. The number of days from receipt to post decreased from 30 to 5, an 83% reduction. Additional improved outcomes resulted from the Kaizen process.

Cecil County Health Department (CCHD) redesigned the onboarding process for new staff. As a result, most new staff reported that they understand their role at CCHD and found the onboarding process to be informative and useful. Onboarding education can improve staff members’ ability to meet...

Missoula City-County Health Department in Montana drastically increased its reach to clients who are eligible for its Health Services programs by improving program referral processes for existing clients. As a result, the health department can much better serve eligible women, infants, and children.

Oneida County Health Department’s (OCHD’s) QI team increased QI project submissions from staff, thus strengthening ongoing performance improvement in the agency.

Staff at Deschutes County Health Services (DCHS) recognized that they had so many different programs in operation that it was difficult for staff to make all the appropriate referrals for clients. They did a QI project, and their improvement hypothesis targeted three areas: knowledge, workflow, and...

Budget literacy of health department staff is a key attribute necessary before decentralizing financial management and program oversight. After an assessment that determined that staff had knowledge gaps, an educational intervention was initiated to increase their financial management competency....

This medium-size local health department improved and standardized the effectiveness of environmental health (EH) plan reviews for new restaurant establishments. The QI team used Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma methods and tools to successfully reduce the EH plan review approval time frame from 30 days...

Clackamas County Public Health Division has improved its onboarding processes to ensure that occupational health requirements are met within 30 days after hiring new employees and annually thereafter to ensure that risk is low and that employees and clients are safe and healthy.

Saginaw County Department of Public Health (SCDPH) conducts strategic planning every 2 years. After noting that not all staff were engaged, the four previous strategic planning groups conducted a PDSA cycle on the strategic planning process. As a result, staff are now more committed to setting and...

Taking the bite out of labor intensive reporting and delays though community collaboration and use of QI tools and methods to increase the number of animal bite reports submitted to the health department in a timely fashion.

Deschutes County Health Services (DCHS) in Central Oregon is now able to provide more efficient preventive strategies for the county through creating and implementing an online process for reporting foodborne illness, restaurant complaints, hotel and motel complaints, pool and spa complaints, and...

By streamlining their internal computer drive, creating an internal framework for its use/upkeep, and training staff on the efficient and effective use of the computer drive, the Three Rivers District Health Department has increased staff productivity.

An example of bridging health and health care in rural Nebraska: In order to improve critical health outcomes of “hard to reach” patients with diabetes and high blood pressure, a local health department and a community health center partnered to use the PDSA model and best practices to provide...

The Washington state health department conducted a Kaizen event to streamline the application process for HIV positive Washington state residents with low incomes to receive coverage. Multiple improvements were made, several target goals were exceeded, resulting in quicker access to life-saving...

By improving its grant application process, the Bethlehem Health Bureau increased the success rate of funded grant applications and increased the amount of grant funding received. The improved process now enables the organization to better meet the needs of the community it serves.

By improving processes in its WIC program, the Wood County Health Department has made WIC education more accessible to clients, increased client satisfaction, and freed up staff time to complete other work assignments.

Washington State Department of Health enhanced their ability to lower the risk of clients receiving substandard care in hospital settings. Using a Lean process, staff implemented a host of improvements to increase the rate of hospital inspections conducted within the state-mandated 18-month...

TPCHD sped its response time for solid waste complaints, resulting in greater protection of the public’s health, better customer service, and greater accountability to its community members.

Recognizing the power and strength of inclusive community-based collaboration, the health department, under the leadership of the St. Clair County Health Care Commission, used quality planning to enlist more than 60 local organizations to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce the unacceptably...

This 10-county District health department improved the processes of immunization clinic scheduling, preparation and follow-up and reduced the number of “no shows” , leading to greater efficiency and capacity. The improved process and staff training were then standardized across the 10 counties.

This local health department addressed an unacceptable rate of low birth weight births by standardizing their referral process and timeframes; successfully making pre-natal care referrals earlier in the gestation period to ultimately improve the health of newborns in their county.

By implementing more accurate Medicaid billing procedures that resulted in an increase in Medicaid match revenue, the local health department was able to re-direct funds to necessary departmental strategic priorities that benefit the health of the local community.

There was a lag between the time when health care providers diagnosed cases of sexually transmitted diseases and the providers notifying the health department. By improving the timeliness of the reports, the health department could quickly reach and treat contacts of the patient, thus...