achia In the NEWS
Happy Birthday, ACHIA!
ACHIA celebrates 10 years and shares reflections from past
participants
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Alabama
Child Health Improvement Alliance (ACHIA). Established in 2014, ACHIA fosters a culture of quality improvement (QI) in pediatric care to support optimal health outcomes for children and youth in Alabama. ACHIA QI collaboratives help practices elevate care.
Achia Practices improve teen depression care
The American Academy of Pediatrics declared a state of emergency regarding child and adolescent mental health in October 2021. With as many as 20 percent of teens diagnosed with a mental health disorder in any given year, the trend became worse based on preliminary pandemic data showing the proportion of adolescent suicide rising. Due to a severe shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAP) with most Alabama counties having no CAPs, pediatricians were given a unique opportunity to promote healthy social-emotional development of children and to prevent and address their mental health and substance use conditions.
Practices celebrate participation in 2023 Teen Mental Wellness Collaborative
Alabama Chapter-AAP Spring Meeting attendees learned how to apply lessons gathered from the ACHIA Teen Mental Wellness Collaborative to their practices.
Pictured with their completion certificates from the collaborative are Melissa McNally, MD, FAAP, Partners in Pediatrics; Michael Ramsey, MD, FAAP, Dothan Pediatric Clinic; and Cason Benton, MD, FAAP, Director, Alabama Child Health Improvement Alliance.
early relational health
ACHIA is happy to announce the launch of its new QI collaborative in December 2023. Healthy Beginnings 2024: An ACHIA Trauma Informed Care and Resiliency QI Collaborative will focus on measurably improving strengths-based messaging and enhancing screening and follow-up for perinatal depression, social determinants of health and social-emotional wellness during early childhood well visits. Led by Dr. Elizabeth Dawson, nine participating practices will learn how to transition from "summing the suffering" to "building the buffering" by promoting resiliency and positive childhood experiences.
The ACHIA newsletter provides information about current quality improvement initiatives, collaborative outcomes and more. Click below to read more.
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The Alabama Child Health Improvement Alliance team was recently featured in the AAP News for its accomplishments over the last 10 years.
Right medicine, right dose, right route, right duration:
Upcoming ACHIA Antibiotic Stewardship Quality
Improvement Collaborative
The 2021 AAP Policy Statement “Antibiotic Stewardship in Pediatrics” highlighted that antibiotic overuse contributes to antibiotic resistance, which is a threat to Public Health. Antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed class of medications among children, with the majority prescribed in an outpatient setting. While antibiotic therapy has saved many lives, overuse can cause harm.
Pediatric Quality Improvement: ACHIA announces QI topics for 2026-2023!
Every five years, the Alabama Child Health Improvement Alliance selects pediatric clinical topics for which we use quality improvement (QI) in an outpatient setting to attain measurable improvements in child health outcomes. ACHIA identifies these topics by polling Alabama clinicians, ACHIA steering committee members, and state organizations invested in children’s well-being.