Florida Statutes § 383.2162

“Black infant health practice initiative under the public health law”

The black infant health practice initiative is established to identify factors in the health and social systems contributing to higher mortality rates among African-American infants. The initiative must be administered through a collaboration among the Department of Health, federal and state healthy start coalitions, and public universities or colleges having expertise in public health. Each participating coalition must:

• Develop an interdisciplinary team to oversee the process in its local community.
• Use perinatal periods of risk methodology when appropriate to examine infant deaths in its community.
• Use a modified fetal and infant mortality review committee approach to examine infant deaths in its community.
• Develop findings and recommendations for interventions and policy changes to reduce racial disparities in infant mortality.

The Department of Health must award annual grants, subject to specific appropriations by the Legislature. The department must award at least one grant to a coalition representing urban counties and at least one grant to a coalition representing rural counties. Priority of grant awards must be given to those coalitions representing counties having an average nonwhite infant mortality rate at least 1.75 times greater than the white infant mortality rate between 2003 and 2005 and an average of at least 40 nonwhite infant deaths between 2003 and 2005 for urban counties or an average of at least 5 nonwhite infant deaths between 2003 and 2005 for rural counties.

The Department of Health must conduct an annual evaluation of the implementation of the initiative describing which areas are participating in the initiative, the number of reviews conducted by each participating coalition, grant balances, and recommendations for modifying the initiative.