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Promising Practices

The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.

The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.

Practices that were submitted by local partners are listed first and will have a green box below them that indicates they are local. Users can also use the search features to find promising practices from across the country.

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DuPage Narcan Program (DuPage County, IL)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to provide police departments, schools and others with Naloxone and proper training to save lives from heroin overdose and to provide individuals with a chance to recover.

Impact: In the first six months of the second year, 26 saves were recorded.

Engage DuPage (DuPage County, IL)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goals of Engage DuPage include improving the health status of self-pay Emergency Department patients, increasing the revenue appropriately owed to hospitals for services rendered, improving the financial assistance processes involving self-pay Emergency Department patients, and reducing the number of avoidable Emergency Department visits among self-pay patients.

Impact: By the end of 2014, 57% of all benefit applications that were submitted were approved. In addition, 29% of all interested patients were connected to a primary care provider through a Community Access Specialist.

Wheaton/Warrenville Early Childhood Collaborative (DuPage County, IL)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The mission of the Wheaton/Warrenville Early Childhood Collaborative is to effectively coordinate services focused on providing opportunities for learning success and improved Kindergarten readiness for all Community Unit School District 200 children birth to five, especially those most vulnerable.

The 4 goals of the WWECC are:
1. Improve communication among early childhood service providers though implementation of collaborative partner and sub-committee meetings.
2. Increase parent education about childhood development needs.
3. Increase professional development for early childhood service providers.
4. Increase children's Kindergarten/school readiness.

Impact: This targeted program can have a strong impact, as research shows that 85% of brain development occurs by age 5 and that high-quality early care and education experiences lead to lower drop-out rates, lower rates of becoming a teen parent, and lower rates of participation in special education.

Dental Caries (Cavities): Community Water Fluoridation

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Oral Health

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends community water fluoridation to reduce tooth decay (i.e., dental caries or cavities).

Drive-Through Flu Clinic (Grand Forks, ND)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of the Greater Grand Forks Immunization Coalition is to have all residents protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.The Drive-Through Flu Clinic was designed to address barriers to vaccination in the community for residents six months of age and older.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City and County of San Francisco (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of these projects was to find ways to maximize energy conservation and efficiency through measures with a quick payback period.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Kings County (Kings County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The energy goals of the committee were to save money, reduce energy usage and to "stay on" during blackouts to avoid sending employees home.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Orange County Water District (Orange County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: OCWD's goals in 2001 were to reduce energy load, save money and preserve/extend equipment life. Its projects targeted power use in buildings' electrical/lighting systems; chemical and energy management issues concerning the plant treatment process and HVAC systems; and energy use by employees and ultimately customers.

WHACK the Flu (Berkeley, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children

Goal: The goal of the WHACK the Flu project was to provide strategies for children to employ to reduce the transmission of communicable diseases to their families and other contacts.

Avian Flu Outbreak and Vaccination Drill (Yolo County, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The purpose of the exercise was to train health and emergency medical personnel in planning for and responding to large scale disease outbreaks. The most proven method to assure an effective response to a real event is to practice a well-coordinated multi-agency field exercise.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.
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