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| ABSTRACT INFORMATION |
| Presenter Information: |
| Presenter 1: |
Name: Valerie Odeh
Affiliation:
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| Presenter 2: |
Name: Keith Garrett
Affiliation:
Keith Garrett, BS, MA; I am a native Phoenician but after many years in Colorado came back to Phoenix in 2002 with my 16 year old son and 8 year old daughter (they were 10 and 2 at the time). In 2003 my daughter was identified with a moderate hearing loss and she began wearing bilateral BTE hearing aids and attending Desert Voices Oral Learning Center. She is now mainstreamed at a charter school in Phoenix. I currently work as a Follow-up specialist for state of Arizona’s Newborn Hearing Screening Program in the Department of Health Services. Prior to that I served as the Audiology Technician at Phoenix Children’s hospital where I coordinated the newborn hearing screening program. I also serve as a founding board member of the Arizona chapter of Hands and Voices.
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| Author Information: |
| Author 1: |
Name: Christy Taylor
Affiliation: AZ Department of Health Services
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| Author 2: |
Name: Lylis Olsen
Affiliation: EAR Foundation of Arizona
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| Abstract Information: |
| Title: |
Impacting Loss to Follow up Through Small Tests of Change in Arizona |
| Primary Track: |
1-EHDI Program Enhancement
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| Keyword(s): |
Hearing Screening, Follow-up, NICHQ, PDSA |
Abstract: |
Arizona participated in the first National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ), Improving Follow-Up to Newborn Hearing Screening by Working through the Medical Home project. Although the final national NICHQ team meeting was in September 2007, the Arizona team continued meeting and working on their projects until May 2008. During this two-year period, the team collaborated and explored many new tools to better serve Arizona families. The format for how we tackled our “small tests of change” as well as our meeting schedules and structure changed as we learned from our successes and failures.
The team tested and implemented several PDSA’s (Plan Do Study Act model of improvement). The PDSA’s addressed issues such as improving the percent of newborns that did not pass an inpatient screen and return for an outpatient screen and increasing the percent of infants with possible hearing loss diagnosed by three months. The team also created a Family Checklist to help guide families through the diagnostic process. We formed a focus group to determine the format and the best point of entry to assist those in greatest need. The team initiated several other PDSA’s, including the creation of a universal audiology referral form to ease the referral process for physicians, as well as a PDSA to encourage hospitals to enter the mother’s date of birth on all hearing records in order to assist the state with matching efforts. In October 2007, the successful concepts moved to spread during a statewide meeting for hospital screeners. Since then, we encourage the spread by considering these tested strategies best practice. Our Audiology consultants continue to work with hospital screening programs, audiologists and medical home providers to further spread the changes and to identify new opportunities. |
| Presentation(s): |
Not Available
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| Handouts: |
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