A number of state perinatal quality collaboratives take advantage of the Annual Meeting and Quality Congress of the Vermont Oxford Network to get together and compare notes. Some of these collaboratives have existed since 2006 or so; others are more recently created. The idea is for people in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in each state to set statewide targets and objectives, compare best practices, and understand the variability in clinical practices across and within institutions. This is not a government-ordered process: It originates with practitioners in each state.
I sat in on the session today and was greatly impressed by the scope and scale of work going on in a number of states. In Michigan, for example, 17 centers get together and have produced a 46% reduction in nosocomial infections between 2008 and 2010 among level III (the most vulnerable) babies in their NICUs (from 298 cases per thousand patient days to 127.) It was reported that trust across the centers assisted in the shared learning that made this possible. Also, transparency across centers identified factors contirbuting to the variability in infection rates across the centers.
In Mississippi, where the group has just formed, they have set targets for reductions of central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), reduction of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD); increases in the use of human milk for very low body weight (VLBW) babies; and the like. In North Carolina, with one of the longest running collaboratives, documented progress on an number of metrics has persuaded the state's largest insurer to give preferential rate treatment to those centers that are part of the collaborative. In Ohio, with a long-running collaborative, CLABSI problems have significantly diminished.
I was especially pleased to learn that back in my home state of Massachusetts, the 9-center collaborative decided several years ago to share all data from their NICUs with one another, attaching the name of each hospital to the data as part of the process. This was at the urging of Jonathan Cronin, unit chief of neonatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, who reportedly said that if the collaborative was to be serious about meeting higher standards of care, such transparency of clinical metrics was essential. So the group regularly shares information on rates of retinopathy of prematurity, chronic lung disease, necrotizing enterocolitis, infections, and the like.
In summary, this was an inspiring session with lots of important examples and lessons for adult care, as well. And good for the Vermont Oxford Network to facilitate the collaborative process.
I sat in on the session today and was greatly impressed by the scope and scale of work going on in a number of states. In Michigan, for example, 17 centers get together and have produced a 46% reduction in nosocomial infections between 2008 and 2010 among level III (the most vulnerable) babies in their NICUs (from 298 cases per thousand patient days to 127.) It was reported that trust across the centers assisted in the shared learning that made this possible. Also, transparency across centers identified factors contirbuting to the variability in infection rates across the centers.
In Mississippi, where the group has just formed, they have set targets for reductions of central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), reduction of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD); increases in the use of human milk for very low body weight (VLBW) babies; and the like. In North Carolina, with one of the longest running collaboratives, documented progress on an number of metrics has persuaded the state's largest insurer to give preferential rate treatment to those centers that are part of the collaborative. In Ohio, with a long-running collaborative, CLABSI problems have significantly diminished.
I was especially pleased to learn that back in my home state of Massachusetts, the 9-center collaborative decided several years ago to share all data from their NICUs with one another, attaching the name of each hospital to the data as part of the process. This was at the urging of Jonathan Cronin, unit chief of neonatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, who reportedly said that if the collaborative was to be serious about meeting higher standards of care, such transparency of clinical metrics was essential. So the group regularly shares information on rates of retinopathy of prematurity, chronic lung disease, necrotizing enterocolitis, infections, and the like.
In summary, this was an inspiring session with lots of important examples and lessons for adult care, as well. And good for the Vermont Oxford Network to facilitate the collaborative process.
1 comment:
Thank you for articulating the link between human milk and neonatal outcome. Every technological improvement in high risk neonatal care has separated a mother and her milk from the baby who needs it. Hunter-gatherers and other primates feed newborns many times each hour - consonant with the nutritional and immunological challenges of our evolutionary history. We set our standards too low: humans did not emerge from Aristotelian text.
Human evolutionary history should be the starting point for medical inquiry. See http://evmedreview.com/ for real innovation in medical education.
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