Search Results: MCHLine

Annotation: The project's goals were to: (1) Develop and implement structures and processes in defined community areas to plan and implement a family-centered, community-based health care delivery system for children; (2) develop data system capacity and function statewide to ensure family-centered, community-based primary care services for children; and (3) share experiences in family-centered, community-based system change in the area of primary health care for children with other State, regional, and national maternal and child health providers. At the State level, strategies were directed toward developing a system of children's primary health care delivery that was family centered and community based. At the local level, child health steering committees in established projects were to continue to plan and implement child health system changes in their service areas. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

Keywords: Access to Health Care, Child Mortality, Community Based Health Services, Databases, Family Centered Health Care, Information Systems, Primary Care, Standards of Care, State Programs

Annotation: This handbook captures the values and beliefs of health care consumers in leadership positions in human services organizations. The handbook, which is available online only and may be printed, sets forth principles to help guide health care consumers as they assume leadership positions and provides guidance or negotiating issues that may come with their new roles. The handbook delineates eight fundamentals for practice and discusses each of them.

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Keywords: Consumers, Health care, Leadership, Service delivery systems

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Keywords: Adolescent health, Assessment, Health care systems, Program improvement, Quality assurance

Annotation: This brief reviews what has been accomplished to date in the development of the family voice in all child-serving systems including substance abuse, mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, trauma support, education, and primary care. The review indicates what needs to occur to create true cross-systems collaboration supporting family involvement, so that youth and their families can fully access the service and supports they need to obtain and maintain optimum health.

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Keywords: Child health, Child welfare, Collaboration, Families, Family centered care, Health care systems, Interagency cooperation, Parent professional relations, Service coordination, Service delivery systems

Annotation: This resource provides a geographic representation of child health in the United States. Contents include national and state-specific data on pediatric health care delivery at the Primary Care Service Area level. A range of maps is available including the number of children under age 18 per pediatrician, the number of children in linguistically-isolated households, median household income, the number of pediatric residents and fellows, and estimated vaccine coverage rates. An interactive mapping tool is available to members of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Children, Data sources, Geographic regions, Health care disparities, Immunization, Integrated information systems, Interactive media, Language barriers, Low income groups, Patient care planning, Pediatricians, Statewide planning, Work force

Annotation: The Birth Equity Action Map is an interactive mapping tool that describes urgent actions needed by specific system actors (i.e., birth equity partners) to improve birth and racial equity, and it highlights where the system funders can use their leverage to accelerate birth equity. The tool is designed to accelerate the work of communities, coalitions, and funders in strategically assessing their efforts, identifying opportunities, and committing to specific actions to strengthen the birth equity and early childhood ecosystem.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Childbirth, Health care disparities, Health care systems, Health equity, Interactive media, Maps, Maternal health, Perinatal care

Annotation: This website describes the Advancing Maternal Health Through Quality Improvement and Professional Education Initiative and its efforts to improve postpartum systems of care related to cardiovascular health. It addresses management strategies for heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes in birthing persons to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Available resources include scientific statements, professional guidelines, webinars, and a podcast series that explores community-led solutions and clinical-community linkages. The site also presents clinical recommendations developed by a multi-disciplinary writing group supported by Merck for Mothers.

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Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases, Health care systems, Maternal health, Perinatal care, Postpartum care, Quality improvement

Annotation: This article from Grantmakers In Health (GIH) describes a collaborative effort by funders to address gaps in postpartum care following the extension of Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months after birth. The piece discusses how a workgroup of funders—including Pritzker Children's Initiative, Merck for Mothers, and Community Health Acceleration Partnership—formed in 2023 to identify opportunities for improving postpartum care systems. The article includes a visual diagram that illustrates the multi-layered challenges in postpartum care on three levels: individual, community, and system. This concentric circle diagram shows how issues such as standards of care, access to quality care, care fragmentation, and policy misalignment (at the system level) interact with community-level challenges like administrative burden and workforce shortages, as well as individual-level factors including awareness of needs, social and economic barriers, and fear of medical debt. Through stakeholder interviews, the workgroup discovered significant fragmentation of services and the absence of comprehensive care standards beyond the traditional six-week postpartum period. In response, the funders issued a request for proposals aimed at creating a centralized hub to catalog and connect postpartum care initiatives, with the goal of developing comprehensive standards and addressing what they term the "postpartum cliff."

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Keywords: Access to healthcare, Barriers, Collaboration, Funding, Health care reform, Library collection development, Medicaid, Policy, Postpartum care, Requests for proposals, Service delivery systems, Standards

Annotation: These proceedings present information from a workshop convened to explore innovative practices and models for advancing oral health across the lifespan. Topics include a global perspective on improving oral health, an overview of U.S. federal oral health policies and programs, an overview of U.S. state-level oral health policies, supporting all people to improve their oral health, increasing access to oral health care, the role of public and private payers in improving access to and affordability of oral health care, oral health care for varying populations, dentistry in 2035, enhancing oral health research and innovation, and the potential for systems transformation.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Costs, Dentistry, Health systems, Oral health, Policy, Research, World health

Annotation: This guide for health center staff describes a set of interprofessional oral health core clinical competencies designed to foster integration of oral health care into primary care. The guide also provides information about three pilot projects’ experiences related to implementing the competencies. Contents include recommendations to inform planning, training systems, health information systems, clinical care systems, and evaluation systems.

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Keywords: Barriers, Clinics, Community health centers, Interdisciplinary approach, Oral health, Primary care, Program development, Service integration, Systems development

Annotation: This collection of online tools is intended to accelerate the work of communities, coalitions, and funders in strategically assessing their efforts, identifying opportunities, and committing to actions aimed at assuring conditions that lead to optimal births for all people. The tools include: (1) The Birth Equity Action Map, which describes actions needed by specific birth equity partners to improve birth and racial equity; (2) the Birth Equity Ecosystem Map, which visualizes the factors and conditions needed to achieve equitable outcomes; and (3) the Birth Equity Iceberg, which offers insights on the barriers that perpetuate inequitable outcomes and limit efforts to advance birth equity.

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Keywords: Barriers, Childbirth, Health care systems, Health equity, Racism

Annotation: This thesis presents a research study examining birthing people's experiences with the health care system during prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. The study used patient journey mapping, surveys, and interviews to capture experiences at multiple time points. Participants included six prenatal and four postpartum patients, with a focus on Black birthing people. Key findings revealed challenges with insurance access, getting questions answered between appointments, and a lack of racial concordance with health care workers. Participants also reported feeling unprepared for unexpected events, accepting care that did not align with their needs, and inconsistent mental health and intimate partner violence screenings. The thesis discusses implications for improving maternal care, such as offering low-cost services, implementing telehealth, ensuring universal screenings, and increasing workforce diversity.

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Keywords: Access to care, Barriers, Blacks, Childbirth, Health care systems, Interviews, Perinatal care, Postpartum care, Pregnant women, Prenatal care, Surveys, Toronto Canada

Annotation: This guide provides practical strategies to leverage data from electronic clinical data systems for improved maternal health care.

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Keywords: Data analysis, Data collection, Health care systems, Postpartum care, Prenatal care, Quality improvement, Resources for professionals

Annotation: This toolkit offers evidence-based guidance to help health professionals make health information easier to understand and act on, make health care easier to navigate, and increase support for people of all health literacy levels. Contents include 23 tools addressing the following five domains: path to improvement, spoken communication, written communication, self-management and empowerment, and supportive systems. Additional contents include resources such as sample forms, PowerPoint presentations, and assessment tools.

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Keywords: Communication, Empowerment, Forms, Health care systems, Health literacy, Patient care, Primary care, Resources for professionals, Self care, Social support

Annotation: In this podcast episode, host Christie Allen and Dr. Gillispie-Bell discuss how acknowledging the need for change and understanding the difficulty of the journey are the starting points for positive transformation. With a focus on practical steps, they address how healthcare providers can engage with systems and structures already in place to promote equity. From engaging with quality departments and hospital teams to fostering a culture of transparency, they outline actionable strategies for both providers and institutions to create a future where safe and equitable births are the norm. This episode is part of the AIM for Better Birth series of podcasts that dive deeper into the rising severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality rates in the United States through a data-driven, quality improvement lens.

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Keywords: Childbirth, Health care reform, Health care systems, Health equity, Maternal health, Quality improvement

Annotation: In this podcast episode, host Christie Allen and Dr. Gillispie-Bell address the common myths surrounding equity and improving quality of care within the healthcare system. They discuss whether clinicians are inherently racist and the complex interplay between individual intentions, systemic biases, and how equity and quality are inherently intertwined. emphasizing that trust and relationship-building are pivotal for achieving positive patient outcomes. Dr. Gillispie-Bell and Christie also challenge the notion of blaming patients for non-compliance with care, and emphasize that the onus is on the healthcare system to provide accessible and patient-centered care. They also tackle the misconception that socioeconomic status alone can explain maternal health disparities, and highlight the importance of acknowledging and dismantling systemic biases. This episode is part of the AIM for Better Birth series of podcasts that dive deeper into the rising severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality rates in the United States through a data-driven, quality improvement lens.

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Keywords: Health care systems, Health equity, Implicit bias, Maternal health, Physician patient relations, Racism

Annotation: This brief describes the maternal health crisis in the United States, noting that the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations, with more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths considered preventable. It explains how the crisis disproportionately affects people of color, particularly Black women who die at three to four times the rate of non-Hispanic White women from pregnancy-related complications. The document outlines key factors contributing to these disparities, including implicit and explicit racial bias, systemic bias, barriers for people with disabilities, limited access to healthcare facilities, lack of skilled providers, socioeconomic challenges, and domestic safety concerns. It presents the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis, which identifies five goals and more than 50 action steps to improve maternal health, and introduces Evidence to Action Briefs developed by the Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center to facilitate implementation. The brief includes detailed data visualizations depicting maternal mortality trends by race, ethnicity, geography, and causes of death, and features the ROOTT Framework that illustrates how structural and social determinants affect maternal health outcomes.

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Keywords: Barriers, Blacks, Data, Federal initiatives, Health care disparities, Health care systems, Maternal health, Maternal morbidity, Maternal mortality, Quality improvement, Service integration, Social determinants of health, Trends

Annotation: This report presents findings from a statewide survey and interviews on patient experiences of maternity care in Montana as part of a broader maternal health system needs assessment. It measures experiences of respectful care and autonomy in decision-making using two patient-informed, valid, and reliable scales - the Mothers on Respect Index and the Mothers Autonomy in Decision Making Scale. While most participants reported high levels of respectful care, about a third experienced low-to-moderate levels. Patients with social risk factors, such as food insecurity, housing instability, and social isolation, reported lower levels of respectful care and autonomy compared to those without these risk factors. The report provides recommendations for healthcare systems, providers, and community organizations to strengthen practices that support respectful, person-centered care. These include using the assessment tools to inform quality improvement, engaging in provider education on bias and shared decision-making, and building patient support networks.

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Keywords: Maternal health, Montana, Needs assessment, Patient care, Rural health, Service delivery systems, State surveys

Annotation: This toolkit is designed to assist state health officials in advancing policy initiatives to strengthen perinatal systems of care, improve maternal and infant health outcomes, and address health disparities amid the maternal health crisis. The resource provides key strategies for states using Medicaid policy levers, including policy considerations for strengthening postpartum care coordination under Medicaid, implementing Medicaid coverage of doula and midwifery services to expand the perinatal workforce, and guidelines for optimizing the extension of Medicaid postpartum coverage.

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Keywords: Health care systems, Medicaid, Perinatal care, Postpartum care, State MCH programs, policy development

Annotation: This tip sheet outlines strategies for health professionals in planning, developing, and implementing state and local efforts to ensure access to oral health care for children and adolescents with special health care needs. Topics include working with parents and other caregivers to provide oral hygiene care, work force issues, health care financing, the importance of dental and medical homes, and a review of state and local programs addressing these issues. [Funded in part by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

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Keywords: Adolescents with special health care needs, Children, Children with special health care needs, Dental hygiene, Health care systems, Oral health, Oral health care