CLINICIANS & PROVIDERS
Achieving better
health outcomes
for patients
Clinicians and care providers in maternal and child health want the best health outcomes for children and families. On this page, you’ll find evidence-based information and upstream-focused resources to help center families in your care.
NICHQ and CLINICIANS & PROVIDERS
Improving the quality of care for every patient we serve
The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality has long partnered with and supported clinical care professionals, who are key influencers of patient experience and related health outcomes. From our early focus on the medical home and child health disciplines to our continual work on breastfeeding/safe sleep, newborn screening, and sickle cell disease, relationships with physicians, clinical care specialists, and hospital staff have been critical to our project success.
Our dedicated staff – many with degrees in public health and medicine themselves – understand that to affect positive change, especially at the scale of population health, there are no quick fixes. It takes dedicated, consistent effort at many different levels to produce lasting results.
Clinical care providers working at hospitals, health departments, and community-based organizations serve key roles on NICHQ project teams, as subject matter experts, advisors, and members of quality improvement initiatives. Through evidence-based approaches, collaborative hospital teams have worked to improve patient engagement, transition of care for pediatric patients to adult services, and respectful care for all patients.
Because we are deeply committed to our mission, we offer a variety of open access resources, in the form of webinars, reports, publications, and more. This page is curated with resources for clinical care providers who are interested in improving the quality of care they offer mothers and birthing people, their children, and their families. Use these resources in your practice and share with colleagues to facilitate wider improvements.
Resources by Health Topic
Publications
Community infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion
A mixed-methods study to improve population-level health outcomes
Though breastfeeding is a protective factor against sudden unexpected infant death, motivations to breastfeed often couple with unsafe infant sleep practices. Disparities are present in sudden unexpected infant death, accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, and breastfeeding. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between community-level strategies and associated state-level outcomes for infant safe sleep and breastfeeding.
Findings
We identified two mixed insights: gaps in promotion and outcomes, and persistent disparities between infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion and outcomes. Findings indicate conversational approaches could improve infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion, outcomes, and relative disparities. Community collaboration is needed to address organizational capacity limitations in promoting infant safe sleep and breastfeeding.
How to engage with NICHQ
Access resources in maternal child health
Does your organization need an all-in-one collaborative communication hub? Whether you’re looking to improve internal communications or to serve your clients, check out getting a CORAL of your own!
Get CORAL for your organization
Does your organization need an all-in-one collaborative communication hub? Whether you’re looking to improve internal communications or to serve your clients, check out getting a CORAL of your own!
Get CORAL for your organization
Does your organization need an all-in-one collaborative communication hub? Whether you’re looking to improve internal communications or to serve your clients, check out getting a CORAL of your own!
Webinars to Improve your Practice
Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
Experts discuss the benefits of universal screening for opioid use in the prenatal period and identify best practices of caring for a mother during the prenatal period.
Recognizing the Value of Our Presence
Watch Recognizing the Value of Our Presence, a national MCH webinar highlighting NICHQ’s Community-Centered Hospital Initiative (CCHI).
Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program Webinar
Learn about the impact of the 2014-2017 Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program Webinar (SCDTDP), which marked the first time in U.S. history that improvements in SCD care were tackled on a large, regional, and national scale.
Maternal Depression
Webinar about the effects of maternal depression on early childhood and strategies for intervention.
Resources for Clinicians & Providers
We’ve highlighted these specific resources for their relevance and practical application for medical care professionals.
NICHQ News
Stay in the Loop
Get notified of new resources, initiatives, webinars, and podcast episodes directly in your inbox with our monthly newsletter.
NICHQ projects improving the quality of care
Learn about active and recent projects that engage clinical care providers.
