2015 Champions for Change: Hollin Funk
Every year, Cradle Cincinnati presents its Champions of Change awards to individuals in the community who are fighting for the health of our moms and babies. On September 23rd, Cradle Cincinnati Co-Chair and County Commissioner Todd Portune presented our 2015 Champions of Change awards to six diverse Cincinnatians. Our 2015 Champion of Knowledge winner is Hollin Funk, RN, a public health nurse with the Cincinnati Health Department working on quality improvement initiatives. (Quality improvement is the process of systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups.)Below Hollin gives us an inside look into her work at health department and how its making a difference for mothers and babies in Cincinnati.
Hollin (left) and her daughter, Cori
How does your everyday work help to improve outcomes for mothers and babies in Cincinnati?
In my position at quality improvement I entered data into a data base that was used to measure the outcomes of our patients. We used this information to identify key drivers that were barriers to care and create process improvement plans. We met monthly with our staff at each site to present the data and identify barriers that were preventing them from achieving the expected quality of care.When was a time or moment in your professional career that made you proud? I feel very honored to receive the award for “Champion of Change”. I have spent 25 years of my career working in Pediatrics and moving to quality improvement was a transition. I feel that I learned so much from working with the collaborative to decrease infant mortality. I would have never received this award had it not been for the support of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, University Hospital, Cradle Cincinnati and the people in Cincinnati Health Department that are taking care of our mothers and babies. I learned so much from everyone.What inspires you to help mothers and babies in the Cincinnati area? One of the things that inspires me to help mothers and babies is that I was young parent and looking back there were so many things that I was not aware of when my children were young. There are so many resources available and so much knowledge to share. Medical experts are constantly finding new evidence based practices that improve outcomes for our families. Working together with the collaborative really helps to promote change which will improve the outcomes for our community.Why is Infant Mortality important to you?Infant mortality is important because it helps to measure the overall health of our community. Every baby matters because everyone deserves a happy and healthy community, if that were not the case, then I might not be standing here.How do you plan on continuing to support Cincinnati mothers and babies in the future? In my new role in the Health Center I plan to educate young women about birth control options for planned pregnancies and appropriate spacing, safe sleep, and the dangers of smoking during pregnancy.
(Left to right) Lisa Hyde Miller, Charla Payne, Hollin Funk, Lauren Bostick, Mary Kosik, Veree Russell