Many vital systems, such as the lungs and brain, complete their development during a baby’s last weeks of gestation. So, when a baby is born preterm (before 37 weeks) there is an increased risk of health-related complications and infant mortality. Because nearly 1 in 10 babies is born preterm in the United States, reducing preterm births is…
A report on the highly successful NICHQ-led Best Fed Beginnings initiative is featured in the June online edition of the prestigious Pediatrics journal. The piece, “Best Fed Beginnings: A Nationwide Quality Improvement Initiative to Increase Breastfeeding,” features insights and analysis on the initiative’s major achievements, including driving 80 percent of participating hospitals to achieve “Baby-Friendly” status. Starting…
New York State (NYS) has reduced its infant mortality rate from 5.99 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2002, to 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014. But if you ask leaders in NYS, there is still room for improvement. In 2014, approximately 100 infants died suddenly or unexpectedly in NYS. These sudden unexpected…
After nearly 20 years of guiding teams in constructing PDSA cycles we’ve identified three common pitfalls. The good news is you can easily avoid them.
In the past few months, you may have seen increasing attention around the use in the U.S. of Finnish baby boxes to promote safe sleep environments. Some are hailing it as the solution to the U.S. infant mortality problem. But, the circumstances around the success of baby boxes in Finland are much different than in…
The end goal at NICHQ is to achieve better health outcomes for children. To achieve that, we engage parents and families as partners on the improvement journey, because we know that changing a system requires involving those that the system most affects. “We know that parents have perspectives, insights and connections that stakeholders in public health can’t…
Accreditation for health departments has been implemented to standardize the assessment and measurement of performance of public health departments at the state, local and tribal levels. Current efforts and initiatives like the Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality (Infant Mortality CoIIN) often intersect with state efforts to submit accreditation applications, allowing public…
With separate criteria for the meaning of quality, healthcare and public health use QI in specific ways to fit their needs.
Collaboration is the foundation of making substantive improvements in children’s health. Every initiative, even ones that focus on a small community, seeks to create solutions for complex challenges with deep-seated roots. This is why extended partnerships are important to transforming children’s health. At NICHQ, we seek out organizations, experts, and stakeholders who share our mission…
Welcoming new team members is an exciting part of team turnover. While it can be stressful to lose someone with great insight and historical knowledge, a fresh face could help spark some new ideas or momentum in a quality improvement (QI) initiative. The key to ensuring that recent additions to the team become strong contributors…