Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) is committed to achieving the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) national benchmarks to ensure that infants are identified early and receive intervention services as early as possible. While New York’s EHDI program screens over 95% of infants born each year, a challenge remains to ensure that infants in need of diagnostic audiologic evaluations are not lost to documentation or lost to follow up. Improvement of data and tracking systems is a key goal to improving statewide outcomes on this benchmark. A related project goal is communication with stakeholders, particularly audiologists, to ensure that follow-up data is submitted to the EHDI Information System timely and accurately. New York’s EHDI Program is taking a multifaceted approach to achieving the outcomes of using patient-level data for tracking, increasing the number of infants who receive a diagnosis no later than 3 months of age, and increasing enrollment in intervention services by no later than 6 months of age for infants found to be deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). To improve outcomes and reduce the follow-up burden, NY’s EHDI Program has initiated a regulatory change to require a two-stage inpatient newborn hearing screening for infants who refer on their initial screening. To enhance the link between EHDI and the statewide Early Intervention Program, the EHDI Program is leveraging in-kind services of the Bureau of Early Intervention (BEI) data team to review and generate EHDI data for local data reporting to birth hospitals and for federal reporting purposes. State staff are engaged in maintaining the EHDI-IS system; the BEI team will work with the EHDI Program staff to make recommendations on system enhancements to support additional CDC reporting requirements in the coming grant period. The EHDI Program has seen significant staffing changes over the past six to twelve months. The Program Coordinator, follow-up coordinator, and data manager have taken promotional opportunities. A Program Coordinator 1 will start on February 20, 2020 and a recruitment is under way for a Health Program Coordinator to focus on follow-up activities and to assist with the regulatory and programmatic activities, including development of training for providers and families, and provision of technical assistance to birth hospitals and providers that will be led by the Program Coordinator 1. Grant funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will support the EHDI program staff’s work on a regulatory and programmatic activities, including enhancing family-centered support. The current HRSA funding cycle ends on March 31, 2020. Funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been utilized to support development and enhancement of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Information System (EHDI-IS), which integrates information from NYSDOH and the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) vital records systems and allows for audiologists to manually enter audiologic test results. The current CDC funding cycle ends on June 30, 2020.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
