Other MCH Data Capacity Efforts

Because of the relationship between the SSDI-funded MCH Analytics Unit and the Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), categorizing data capacity efforts by funding source is not perfectly straightforward. However, sources other than SSDI contribute to the following MCH data capacity efforts:

• The state’s partnership and collaboration in implementing national surveys and monitoring systems: In addition to the Child Fatality Review Team, whose analyst is housed within the MCH Analytics Unit, BVRHS also fields a violent death reporting system and a drug overdose mortality reporting system.
• Collection and tracking of real-time data: BVRHS provides real-time Critical Congenital Heart Defects (CCHD) data to the Newborn Screening Program on a regular basis. The MCH Analytics Unit also provides analysis of CCHD data to the program to help them improve the quality of the data as well as the outcomes.
• Creation of data review boards: Three BVRHS units currently maintain data dashboards available to MCH programs and the public: PRATS, the Idaho Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and the Idaho Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS). All are available at the Idaho Division of Public Health’s Get Healthy Idaho website, www.gethealthy.dhw.idaho.gov.

Key challenges that impact Idaho’s efforts to improve the use of MCH data mostly surround lack of access to hospital discharge data. Idaho can collect all data from the Minimum/Core Datasets except for data associated with hospital discharge, and it represents a gap in analysis and understanding of the health of Idahoans. This data gap is a barrier to having statewide incidence data for neonatal abstinence syndrome. It is also a hurdle for the upcoming MCH initiative to develop a statewide Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PQC).