Growing Best Babies Zones: The Utilization of Quality Improvement in a Community-based Setting

In the Price Hill neighborhood in Cincinnati, approximately 40% of residents and 56% of children live in poverty.  The neighborhood preterm birth rate for 2013 was 16%. Price Hill BBZ brings together a team from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center with Price Hill residents, community leaders and organizations.  The Price Hill BBZ utilized quality improvement methods for a community-based setting to promote health and wellbeing through engagement and empowerment of local residents.

As part of this approach, we designed and implemented two programs. The first program, Club Mom, is a monthly program targeting pregnant and young mothers. Program goals include shared learning experience and engagement in celebration, education and life course planning.  The second program, Healthy Homes – Block by Block, focuses on developing a cohort of Block Captains to support young families, and promote child and family development. The program seeks the following objectives for each home: 1) a safe infant sleeping environment, 2) adequate reading materials to promote kindergarten readiness, 3) appropriately installed home safety equipment, and 4) connection to a family pediatrician or prenatal care provider. For each program, quality improvement tools are used to facilitate identification, engagement, and tracking of target families, including monthly involvement in program activities. Results to date demonstrate promising outcomes in reaching target families, suggesting that quality improvement methods can be successfully adapted to support community-based initiatives. Future directions include measurement of birth and other health outcomes through neighborhood-level data.