ICER - Recent projects

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program

Evaluation of the MCEIHV program is intended to assist the state in its effort to strengthen and improve coordination of services for at-risk communities and identify and provide comprehensive home visiting services to improve outcomes for families who reside in those at-risk communities. Through the implementation of high-quality “evidence-based” home visiting programs for pregnant women, expectant fathers, parents and primary caregivers of children birth to kindergarten in at-risk communities will benefit by improvements in maternal and prenatal health, infant health, and child health and development and prevention of child injuries, reductions in the incidence of child maltreatment Increased school readiness. In addition to assessing the effectiveness of the program with different populations the evaluation is also intended to explore the empirical evidence for the potential for activities to expand, address health disparities and improve health care practices, potential for improvement in the system for quality, efficiencies and reduction of cost.

Personal and Home Care Aide State Training Program

Evaluation of the Iowa Department of Public Health award as one of six states funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a Personal and Home Care Aide State Training Program (PHCAST). The PHCAST Program was created as part of the Affordable Care Act and is a three-year demonstration program to develop core competencies, pilot training curricula, and establish certification programs for personal and home care aides. $4.2 million was awarded to California, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, and North Carolina for the project. The six states that are participating in the three-year PHCAST Program are expected to train over 5,100 personal home care aides by 2013. ICER is providing the evaluation for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Evaluation of the Iowa Consortium for Comprehensive Cancer Control

ICER provides a variety of evaluations for the ICCCC which is funded in part by Iowa Department of Public Health and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Iowa Consortium for Comprehensive Cancer Control's website is located at: http://www.canceriowa.org/

Evaluation of the First Year of the IowaCares Program

Commissioned by the Iowa Department of Human Services, the report was completed in December 2008 by the Public Policy Center and Iowa Center for Evaluation Research, a part of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice in the UI School of Social Work. Three methods were employed for the evaluation. Surveys were used to assess enrollee perceptions, claims data were evaluated to determine outcomes of care, and focus groups and personal interviews were conducted to assess perceptions of hospital providers and administrators. The full report can be accessed by clicking here. An executive summary is also available [click here]. For other information you may visit the UI Public Policy Center.

To see the UI Press Release, [click here].

Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety

The Heartland Center provides doctoral and in-service training in several areas of occupational safety and health including: ergonomics, occupational medicine, occupational health nursing, agricultural health, industrial hygiene, and occupational injury prevention. ICER is providing evaluation of these efforts funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Heartland's website is located at:

http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/Heartland/

Iowa Medical Home Initiative Learning Collaborative

This project was an evaluation of the Iowa Medical Home Initiative Learning Collaborative conducted for the Child Health Specialty Clinics, along with Iowa Academy of Family Practitioners. The project examined family supports and pediatric practices in the process to provide medical homes. Funded by DHHS/HRSA/Maternal and Child Health Branch, the final annual evaluation report is available - (click for pdf)

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