Initiatives
Improved Hearing Screening and Intervention Services (IHSIS)
A series of collaborative improvement projects to increase the rate of documented follow-up and intervention services for infants with hearing loss.
Status: Complete
The multiple collaborative projects ran from 2010 to 2013.
- Who: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) offices representing 28 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in collaboration with parent partners, audiologists and other healthcare professionals and advocates.
- Funder: This project was funded by the Health Resources and Service Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
- Our Role: Facilitated Breakthrough Series learning collaboratives to apply quality improvement methodology to improve the systems of care for children with hearing loss.
What IHSIS Project Participants Say
Working with NICHQ has been a very rewarding experience … A partnership with families has been a hallmark of what the Maternal and Child Health Bureau has done for years, but NICHQ really demonstrated how important those partnerships are.
Being involved with NICHQ has been a career-changing and life-altering experience in many ways. Quality improvement methodology is not additive to my work, it influences how I do my daily work.
At the beginning we thought that it'd be another project or another thing to do in our list of things we're supposed to do. But actually what I've learned is this is a better way to do things—a faster, better and effective way. You have to have a goal and objectives. When you work through the process we've been learning at NICHQ, everything is very efficient.
Prior to the working with NICHQ, we had had some broad areas of focus for our plan for the year, but really had no strategy or mechanism for testing whether a change that we implemented was an improvement. And we’d always implement statewide before knowing if the change was beneficial. I’ve seen other participants in NICHQ projects make a similar shift and now think about how things are possible instead of impossible.
Related Content
Safe Sleep 101
Welcome to NICHQ’s official guide to ensuring safe infant sleep! In honor of National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month, we’re providing you with the tools and knowledge to work toward eliminating SIDS and other sleep-related deaths. Below, you’ll find strategies and interactive resources to promote safe infant sleep guidelines, along with lessons learned to empower health professionals, community advocates, and families across the country to be champions of safe sleep.
Lesson 1: Master the Basics
The first step to preventing SIDS and other sleep-related deaths is to understand and utilize the most up-to-date, evidence-based recommendations for safe infant sleep. Not sure where to start? In this handout, you’ll learn:
- The definition of SIDS and how to reduce the risk of sleep related infant deaths
- How to create a safe sleep environment
- Strategies for promoting safe sleep messaging to health professionals, child care programs, and ultimately, parents and family members
Lesson 2: Knowledge is Power
Every new person who learns about safe infant sleep is one more person who can promote safe infant sleep guidelines. Help build collective knowledge across the country by sharing safe infant sleep information all month and beyond using these resources:
- Our SIDS Awareness Month Social Media Toolkit includes sample posts and graphics for your use
- Health professionals can use this interactive handout and video quiz to engage parents and caregivers in conversations about safe infant sleep and breastfeeding recommendations
Lesson 3: Leverage Successful Strategies
Finding strategies to eliminate sleep-related deaths doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. That’s why we’re sharing a comprehensive literature review and specific examples of promising resources, programs, and interventions states can spread and scale to reduce sleep-related infant deaths. View both resources here.
Lesson 4: Prioritize Equity
Black families are twice as likely as white families to experience their baby’s death in the first year of life. These statistics represent real families who suffer unimaginable loss—loss that stems from the persistent effects of systemic racism on the health of Black families. In this article, we’re sharing recommendations from three experts on how health professionals and improvement initiatives can better support the health and well-being of Black families.
Be a Children's Health Change Agent
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- Donate. Give a gift that supports NICHQ’s initiatives that touch millions of children’s lives. Every dollar raised benefits the health and well-being of children.
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