The Child Health Toolbox is an online resource that helps you measure the quality of child health care programs. It also offers tips and tools for evaluating health care service programs for children.
The toolbox now includes the revised and expanded Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS®) and new AHRQ Quality Indicators.
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State and local policymakers, program directors, and their staff need to be able to tell how well their children's health programs are performing, identify areas that need improvement, and assess the impact of improvement strategies. The Child Health Toolbox is an online resource that can help. Health care consumers, advocates, providers, and plans will also find it useful.
Users can navigate among major sections and subsections and get background information on performance measurement, descriptions of available measures, examples of their use, and application tips.There are also many links to other Web-based resources.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provides evidence-based information on health care outcomes, quality, cost, use, and access. Information from AHRQ's research helps people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services.
AHRQ's User Liaison Program (ULP) disseminates health services research findings in easily understandable and usable formats through interactive workshops and technical assistance for policymakers and other health services research users.
This Toolbox gives a detailed introduction and links to several measures that are in general use in Medicaid, SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program), Title V, or private maternal and child health care programs.
The Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS®) measures experiences of care. As a result of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative's (CAHMI) work, an expanded version of the CAHPS® 2.0 Child Survey now includes the children with chronic conditions screener (CCC screener) and chronic conditions supplemental questions (CCC supplemental questions). It has received the CAHPS® trademark and the name "CAHPS® 2.0 Child Survey" and is part of the HEDIS® measurement set.
AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs), formerly known as the HCUP QIs, were refined through an AHRQ contract with the University of California at San Francisco-Stanford University Evidence-based Practice Center (UCSF-Stanford EPC).
AHRQ QIs comprise the following three modules, each of which includes pediatric indicators:
HEDIS® (Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set) is a set of measures for managed care developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. HEDIS® covers preventive and well child care, care for selected chronic conditions, use of services, and perceptions of care.
This broad set of performance measures is particularly relevant to public health. The Child Health Toolbox focuses on those measures particularly pertinent to health care delivery for children.
The Promoting Healthy Development Survey (PHDS) is used to survey children's parents or guardians to assess health plans' provision of guidance on well-child care, child safety, and child development.
In the Young Adults Health Care Survey (YAHCS), teenagers give information on the clinical preventive services provided to them.
I found your Child Health Toolbox to be an excellent
evaluation guide and reference tool. I am very
impressed with the manner in which you transformed
a difficult and complicated subject as program
evaluation into such a "research friendly tool" which
can be easily understood by evaluators at all levels of
program research. Congratulations on such a fine job!
—Leslie Leila Brandon, M.S.W., M.P.H., New York, NY
I found the information to be excellent and
informative.
—Kathy Taylor-Laws, Program Manager, Arizona Health Care, Cost Containment System
Information available in a concise fashion all in one
place...
—Pamela W. Goslar, Ph.D., Health Researcher, Catholic Healthcare West
Excellent source...brings key issues around
performance together.
—Dr. Sharon Kletchko, Bay of Plenty District Health Board, New Zealand
There is a wealth of information in one place.
—Linda Caley, Ph.D., R.N., Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, School of Nursing, Buffalo, NY
Very direct...simple language, good resources.
—Cathleen M. Walsh, Dr.P.H., M.S.P.H., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
AHRQ Publication No. 01-0025
Revised June 2002
Internet Citation:
Child Health Toolbox. Fact Sheet. AHRQ Publication No. 01-0025, June 2002. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/chtoolfact.htm
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