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ViewAttendees 4

Poster Presentation

Program Planning and Evaluation

Wednesday Evening Poster Reception

WED-077 - Collaboration for Program Change: Quality Improvement for Certified School Health Centers in Illinois

Wednesday, April 22, 2026
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM PST
Location: Plaza Foyer, Plaza Level
Area of Responsibility: Area VII: Leadership and Management
Keywords: Dissemination and implementation@@@Quality Improvement@@@School Health, Subcompetencies: 7.1.3 Involve partners and stakeholders throughout the health education and promotion process in meaningful and sustainable ways., 7.5.1 Facilitate the development of strategic and/or improvement plans using systems thinking to promote the mission, vision, and goal statements for
Research or Practice: Practice

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
  • Describe Quality Improvement tools and techniques that can be implemented for process and program change.
  • Assess methods that can be utilized to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to support program change.
  • Indentify a potential Quality Improvement project in the particpant's practice environment.
Brief Abstract Summary: Learn how the Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) School Health Program, teamed up with other staff across IDPH, to identify methods of system change in the School Health Program. Discover how Quality Improvement tools were utilized to identify gaps in communication with internal and external program partners. Recognize how the School Health Program encouraged external partner engagement with surveys and working groups, to support changes improving program efficiency. Hear more about the outcomes of the implementation strategies and how the strategies can be useful for program evaluation.

Detailed abstract description: The Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) School Health Program, certifies School Based and Linked Health Centers located in various regions of Illinois. Certification of the school health centers, requires annual clinical visits and documentation review. Program staff identified a need to evaluate current program tools and communication pathways for this certification process. The School Health Program staff teamed up with staff across IDPH, to assess current communication and certification processes. Project partners included individuals from various educational backgrounds, location from around the state, and expertise in program functioning.

Learn more about the Quality Improvement tools that were utilized to identify gaps in communication with internal and external program partners. Recognize how the School Health Program encouraged external partner engagement with surveys and working groups, to support changes improving program efficiency.

This session will demonstrate how the School Health Program utilized Quality Improvement tools to evaluate and to inform program change. Attendees will learn about how a team project can grow to inform and create broad system changes. Participants will discover how statewide program change can support clinical providers and the care they provide in their communities. The session will provide knowledge on how collaboration with providers in the community can inform upstream program change.