Preventing Infant Mortality in Georgia February 2019 | Page 7

Results Matter: Preventing Infant Mortality in Georgia
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
Evidence from the cross-site evaluation demonstrated that TCOY grantees were able to build or expand capacity in the
following three domains:
1. Collecting and Using Data for Evaluation and Action
 Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycles.
 Logic models for process and outcome evaluation.
 Defining, selecting and tracking indicators.
 Using spreadsheets for tracking individual outcomes, tabulating numerators and denominators, and
charting trends over time.
2. Acquiring Objective Outcome Data
 Using SendSS for monitoring birth outcome data.
 Using state-generated infant mortality reports for monitoring sleep-related deaths.
 Using OASIS for monitoring county-level birth and infant outcome data.
3. Partnering with Other Programs
 Working to address the loss of Title X Family Planning Funds to the local health departments through
systematizing processes for enrolling eligible women into Planning for Healthy Babies (P4HB—The Georgia
Medicaid 1115 Family Planning waiver) by assessing client and patient eligibility and assisting them with
filling out the application to enhance the potential of additional Medicaid revenues.
 Working with other offices within the local public health departments to link women to the maximum set
of resources available to them, including family planning, chronic disease management, lactation support,
perinatal case management and WIC services.
 Working with offices of the state public health department, including the Office of Vital Records, to
access meaningful sources of information, including SendSS and infant mortality reports, for monitoring
programmatic and county-level birth and infant outcomes.
PROCESS EVALUATION
The process evaluation indicates that grantees achieved improvements across the three key intervention areas from
the baseline pre-intervention year (2012) through the implementation years (2014-2016). Data from 2013 are not
shown as this was a development year (under Promising Approaches to Improved Infant Health), during which grantees
were exploring various intervention and measurement strategies before a cross-site approach was established.
In the area of preconception health promotion, Figure 2 demonstrates the number of family planning clients within
the respective health departments completing a Reproductive Life Plan across years 2012 through 2016. For both the
Southwest Public Health District sites (Dougherty and Colquitt), this was a newly-implemented activity under TCOY.
For the Clayton County site, this was not a new activity, but rather an area of focus prior to the inception of the TCOY
Initiative. The Clayton County site acknowledged difficulties in sustaining their reach into the family planning clinics
with the reproductive life plan assessments due to high rates of staff turnover. The Lowndes County site was not able
to numerically track this indicator, but according to key informant interviews, it was noted to have a process in place
for family planning clients to complete reproductive life plans as part of their family planning encounter.
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