Developing national quality measures for infants and toddlers preventive health services

K Dopelt, N Davidovitch, M Honovich, E Stolerman, L Rubin, A Goldberg, I Grotto

Research output: Contribution to journalMeeting Abstractpeer-review

Abstract

Background About 40% of mother and child health centres (MCHC) in Israel are operated by the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH), serving 66% of Israeli infants’ population, while the rest are operated by a range of providers. Recently, there has been a public debate who should be the provider of those services: government or private sector. This debate also raised the issue of developing quality measurements in order to compare and improve the services given in such centres. Objectives (i) To define quality measures for Infants and Toddlers Preventive Health Services in Israel on a national level and (ii) To examine and analyse various factors related to MCHC quality of care (e.g. SES, mother education, ethnicity). Methods The process includes the establishment of a multi-disciplinary steering committee for quality measures building and data collection stage. The sample size of children for the pilot programme includes overall about 10000 babies and infants born between 2004 and 2009. Data analysis includes independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, chi-square text, linear and logistic regression. Results Currently Performance of the various screening tests was not satisfactory and decreased according to age. In the first stage, the national steering committee decided to focus on four fields: Vaccination, nutrition, growth and development. Accordingly four sub-committees were established in order to develop quality measures. Lessons This study serves as a foundation for quality measurements programme in MCHC in Israel. Such programme should include also socio-demographic characteristics and community activities. It can serve policy makers for evidence-based decision making while establishing priorities and effective resource management. Currently the Israeli National Quality Measures program does not include almost any measure related to children health or specifically to the infant and toddlers preventive services. This innovative study can help to promote the field of children’s health quality measures in Israel and internationally.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)250-250
Number of pages1
JournalEuropean Journal of Public Health
Volume20
Issue numberSupplement 1
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2010

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