"Promoting Responsible Action in Medical Emergencies": Determining the Impact of a New University of Maryland Alcohol Protocol

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the impact of the University of Maryland's "Responsible Action Protocol." Judicial records were evaluated to determine if calls for medical assistance increased after the protocol. Descriptive summaries indicated that the number of calls in the semester following the RAP was double the average of the previous six semesters. While there was no variation in calls prior to the RAP (&chi;2 = 4.346, p = .501, df = 5), the post-RAP Fall 2009 semester added significant variation (&chi;22 = 25.069, p < .001, df = 6). Student focus groups were used to evaluate student reaction to the protocol. Students seemed unaware of the RAP's provisions, and stated its language prevented them from trusting the protocol. Students further indicated the university alcohol education was not relevant and did not provide information regarding alcohol poisoning. The findings suggest that the RAP and the university's alcohol education programming will need revisions to increase their impact

A Health Systems Approach to Integrated Community Case Management of Childhood Illness: Methods and Tools

Integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illness is an increasingly popular strategy to expand life-saving health services to underserved communities. However, community health approaches vary widely across countries and do not always distribute resources evenly across local health systems. We present a harmonized framework, developed through interagency consultation and review, which supports the design of CCM by using a systems approach. To verify that the framework produces results, we also suggest a list of complementary indicators, including nine global metrics, and a menu of 39 country-specific measures. When used by program managers and evaluators, we propose that the framework and indicators can facilitate the design, implementation, and evaluation of community case management