Resources & Tools

Kaizen is Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the better." Public Health Foundation (PHF) experts have developed the following tools that can support Kaizen Process Improvement Events: Clean Sheet Process Redesign - Empowers a team to act when a process requires a radical change Mistake Proofing -...

The Quality of a Quality Improvement Project

October 23, 2014

Checklists can help project sponsors know when a QI project is worth doing, and when it has been done well. This brief paper by PHF quality experts Erin Barkema and Jack Moran provides a simple approach to help sponsors select QI projects and shepherd them to success. Related Links: Explore other...

Developing a Population Health Driver Diagram

July 23, 2014

To create opportunities for public health and health care system alignment to improve community health, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) created a population health driver diagram framework. A population health driver diagram can be used collaboratively by public health, health care, and other partners...

Nine Pillars to Support Public Health Quality Improvement Adoption

July 14, 2014

Delivering the highest quality and most effective public health services,the highest quality and most effective public health services starts with developing a quality improvement (QI) mindset throughout the organization. Once this mindset is ingrained in the organization, all actions support the...

Mistake Proofing

June 27, 2014

Defects emerge because of errors – invariably human errors. To “mistake proof” is to reduce the likelihood of something going wrong which would result in an error. Mistake Proofing, sometimes called “poka-yoke,” was developed by Shigeo Shingo in the 1960s to prevent human errors in industrial processes....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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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