MIECHV Data & Continuous Quality Improvement

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program awardees must:

• Collect and report on program performance data
• Use data to improve performance
• Measure how program services help families and communities
• Submit quarterly and annual performance reports
• Create and carry out plans for continuous quality improvement
• Show improvement in performance in at least four of six benchmark areas

HRSA also supports national, state, and local research and evaluation through MIECHV. Visit the MIECHV Evaluation & Research page for more information.

Annual performance reporting

HRSA requires MIECHV Program awardees to collect and report data on their program’s performance.

Areas covered include:

• Demographics of program participants
• How participants engage in home visiting
• The types of services participants receive

The MIECHV performance measurement system includes 19 measures across the six benchmark areas:

• Improvements in maternal, newborn, and child health
• Prevention of child injuries; child abuse, neglect, or maltreatment; and reductions of emergency room visits
• Improvements in school readiness and child academic achievement
• Reductions in crime or domestic violence
• Improvements in family economic self-sufficiency
• Improvements in coordination and referrals for other community resources and supports

Summary of MIECHV Program Performance Measures (PDF - 137 KB)
Summarizes MIECHV performance measures with definitions by numerator and denominator and by benchmark area and measure type.

Resource documents (updates effective starting fiscal year [FY] 2024)

Starting October 1, 2023 (FY24 reporting period), awardees must report the number of virtual home visits by home visiting model in Form 1, Table 15.

You can find additional Technical Assistance (TA) resources around annual performance reporting requirements in the MIECHV Awardee Learning Library. Contact your MIECHV Technical Assistance Resource Center’s (TARC) TA Specialist for more information.

• Form 1 – Demographic Performance Measures (PDF - 373 KB) Includes demographic, service utilization, and select clinical indicators*
• Form 2 – Benchmark Performance Measures (PDF - 323 KB) Includes performance indicators and systems outcome measures*
• Form 1 Toolkit – Demographic, Service Utilization, and Select Clinical Indicators (PDF - 625 KB) Includes Form 1 reporting requirements and specific instructions for each Form 1 table.
• Form 2 Toolkit – Performance Indicators and Systems Outcomes (PDF - 1 MB) Includes Form 2 reporting requirements with definitions, details, and logic statements for each performance measure.
• FAQs: Demographic, Service Utilization, and Select Clinical Indicators and Performance Indicators and Systems Outcomes (PDF - 623 KB) Provides frequently asked questions (FAQs) on annual performance reporting requirements organized by Form and Tables.
• Guidance on Identifying Missing Data (PDF - 162 KB) Provides definitions for missing data for each performance measure in Form 2.
• Home Visiting Model Developer Performance Measurement Crosswalk (PDF - 1 MB) Details how select home visiting model data requirements align with MIECHV Program requirements.
• Grantee Performance Measurement – Data Collection and Analysis Plan Template (PDF - 188 KB) A performance measurement plan (PMP) template for optional use by awardees.

Training videos

MIECHV Quarterly and Annual Reports – Help Video

Webinars

Strategies for Improving Data Quality and Addressing Missing Data (February 14, 2019) Transcript (PDF - 128 KB)

Quarterly performance reporting

MIECHV awardees must submit quarterly performance reports to help HRSA monitor grants and provide oversight.

The forms cover measures on service utilization and staff recruitment and retention.

• Form 4 – Quarterly Data Collection (PDF - 71 KB) Includes reporting dates and data elements collected under Form 4, as well as Key Definitions of terms.
• Form 4 – Quarterly Performance Reporting – Frequently Asked Questions This webpage includes frequently asked questions about Form 4, organized by topic or Form 4 Table.

MIECHV American Rescue Plan Act reporting

MIECHV awardees who received American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) funding (X11 awards) must submit quarterly and annual reports to help HRSA monitor grants and provide oversight.

Quarterly progress reports are unique to the ARP grant. These reports describe the scope of activities across the seven categories in which awardees may spend funds. You can use the Home Visiting Information System (HVIS) to report quarterly performance data on service utilization and staff recruitment and retention by using Form 4.

You must combine data across active Formula grants (X10) and ARP grants (X11) into one Annual Performance Report submission. The report is due in October of each year. You must include families served using ARP funds in your Annual Performance Report (Forms 1 and 2).

The following documents provide specific reporting requirements, including deadlines and instructions for submitting reports:

• MIECHV ARP – Reporting Instructions This webpage includes a background on ARP, reporting requirements and instructions, including what data elements to report and reporting calendar.
• MIECHV ARP Reporting – FAQs This webpage includes frequently asked questions on ARP quarterly reporting, including due dates and questions organized by section.
• MIECHV ARP – Quarterly Progress Report Template (DOCX - 49 KB) Provides a template for quarterly progress report, including a brief overview with due dates and instructions for each data element.
• Annual Reporting Forms (consolidated with MIECHV Formula Annual Report [X10]) (See Forms 1 and 2 under Annual Performance Reporting Resource Documents)

Health Equity Assessment Leveraging Performance Measurement (HEAL-PM)

HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Administration for Children and Families began the HEAL-PM project to examine how the MIECHV performance measurement system can better monitor and understand how awardees document and measure changes in health disparities and progress toward health equity over time. Health equity aims to reduce disparities or differences between groups’ health status and health outcomes. HEAL-PM seeks to understand how the MIECHV Program performance measurement system can change to include a health equity framework.

NORC at the University of Chicago, a not-for-profit research organization, was our contractor on this project to focus on answering three questions:

1. Using a health equity measurement framework, how do the social and structural determinants of health inform MIECHV Program performance data?
2. How can the performance measures better show HRSA's commitment to increasing health equity in the current benchmark areas?
3. How can collecting data and providing Technical Assistance (TA) help with gathering and assessing MIECHV Program data through a health equity framework?

Resource documents

• HEAL-PM Enhancements in the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program – Interested Parties Discussion Summary Memo (PDF - 512 KB) Summarizes discussions in 2022 with MIECHV and Tribal MIECHV awardees about priorities for measuring and assessing health equity.
• HEAL-PM Enhancements in the MIECHV Program – Interested Parties Summary Memo, Year 2 Engagement (PDF - 1 MB) Summarizes feedback on the preliminary recommendations to revise the MIECHV/Tribal MIECHV performance measurement systems.
• HEAL-PM Environmental Scan Summary Report – Final Report (February 2023) (PDF - 2 MB) Presents methods, findings, and key recommendations from the HEAL-PM environmental scan.

Demonstration of improvement

MIECHV awardees must show that their programs improved outcomes in at least four of six benchmark areas for eligible families. The information is due every three years.

The following resources are available for the FY23 Demonstration of Improvement (DOI):

• FY23 Demonstration of Improvement in Benchmark Areas – Webinar Slides (PDF - 1 MB) (May 2023) Presents an overview of DOI guidance and strategies to assess and plan for improvement.
• MIECHV Demonstration of Improvement in Benchmark Areas (PDF - 211 KB) (Updated April 2023) Identifies which measure(s) within a benchmark area each MIECHV-eligible evidence-based home visiting model intends to improve.
• Tip Sheet: Preparing for the FY23 Demonstration of Improvement (PDF) Offers strategies for awardees to consider in order to plan for DOI.
• MIECHV Program Guidance on Meeting Requirements to Demonstrate Improvement in Benchmark Areas (PDF - 270 KB) Details DOI background, purpose, requirements, and methods.
• MIECHV Program Guidance on Meeting Requirements to Demonstrate Improvement in Benchmark Areas – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (PDF - 175 KB) Provides frequently asked questions about DOI, organized by background and purpose, requirements, and methods.
• Synthesis of Stakeholder Feedback Regarding MIECHV Statutory Changes for the Assessment of Awardee Improvement in Benchmark Areas (PDF - 206 KB) (Released 2019) A summary and brief analysis of stakeholder feedback following statutory changes to DOI assessment.

Continuous quality improvement

MIECHV Program awardees are required to plan, implement, and report on their continuous quality improvement (CQI) activities by submitting a CQI plan on a biannual basis. A CQI plan is an organization’s guide for improving its services, processes, capacity, and outcomes. A CQI plan allows programs to describe their approach to CQI, assess their capacity to carry out CQI, summarize past CQI efforts, and identify lessons learned.

• FY23 CQI Plan – Guidance and Template (PDF - 507 KB) Includes descriptions of what a CQI plan is, what is necessary to include in the plan, and the submission and review process, and a plan template that includes all required components.
• FY20 CQI Plan – Updates and Building Capacity for CQI Coaching and LIA Support Webinar (January 21, 2020) Transcript (PDF - 155 KB)

Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network 3.0 (HV CoIIN 3.0)

The HV CoIIN helps MIECHV awardees and LIAs scale up improvement strategies that have been tested and test new strategies. The award is in its third phase. HRSA awarded $1.3 million to the Education Development Center on September 1, 2022.

During the five-year funding period, HV CoIIN 3.0 will continue to build MIECHV awardee staff skills in continuous quality improvement and dissemination. It will also help scale up strategies that improve performance and outcomes. Find out more information at the HV CoIIN 3.0’s website.

Home Visiting Budget Assistance Tool (HV-BAT)

The HV-BAT is an Excel-based tool that MIECHV awardees and local implementing agencies (LIAs) can use to track and analyze comprehensive home visiting program costs incurred by LIAs over the year. Collected information can be used for many purposes, including supporting awardee fiscal planning and management.

Forms

HV-BAT Tool (XLSX - 155 KB)* Collects cost data across eight categories of spending, as well as descriptive information about LIA characteristics.

Resource documents

• HV-BAT User Guide Overview (PDF - 118 KB) Provides an overview of content in the two HV-BAT User Guides.
• HV-BAT User Guide Volume I (PDF - 567 KB) (Includes instructions for MIECHV awardees) Provides guidance for MIECHV awardees on implementing HV-BAT data collection and analysis in their state or jurisdiction.
• HV-BAT User Guide Volume II (PDF - 1 MB) (Includes instructions for LIAs) Provides instructions for LIAs on how to fill out the HV-BAT.

MIECHV awardees can receive HV-BAT TA resources and support by contacting their MIECHV TARC TA Specialist team.

Data exchange standards

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 115-123) provided authority for HRSA to establish data exchange standards for MIECHV. These standards support federal reporting and electronic exchange of data between the MIECHV state agency and other state agencies.

By sharing data, MIECHV awardees can help answer key policy, program, and research questions about the home visiting field that are hard to answer with current data. The following resources can help MIECHV awardees set up data exchange standards in their state or territory.

• Coordinating Data Sharing Across Agencies (PDF - 264 KB)
• Now What? Next Steps for Using Interoperable Home Visiting Data (PDF - 338 KB)
• Communicating Effectively with Families about Data Sharing (PDF - 313 KB)
• Implementing Data Exchange Standards: A Toolkit for MIECHV Awardees (PDF - 571 KB)
• Developing Data Exchange Standards for MIECHV Home Visiting Programs (PDF - 223 KB)

*Note: This file may not be fully accessible to people using assistive technology. For assistance, please email Elizabeth Firsten or call 267-591-2143.

Contact us

Email: HomeVisiting@hrsa.gov