Membership Benefits

At Vermont Oxford Network, we provide a range of quality management tools, research and collaborative opportunities to assist neonatal intensive care units improve their quality of care.

• Quality Management Tools
• Research
• Collaboration

Vermont Oxford Database
Established in 1988, the Vermont Oxford Network maintains one of the world's largest Neonatal Databases. This database includes information from over 900 Neonatal Intensive Care Units around the world including the care and outcomes for high-risk infants. This database provides unique, reliable and confidential data to participating units for use in quality management, process improvement, internal audit and peer review.

Reports
We provide you with comprehensive statistical reports to be used as the basis for your ongoing quality improvement program. You may select the exact infant population on which you wish to receive reports and, with our easy data submission and secure online access to reports, you will be able to update your data easily and receive up-to-the-minute reports on your center. For centers wishing to form alliances with other centers, we also offer group reporting and programming.

Choice of Population
Each member center has the choice to participate in either our Very Low Birth Weight Database (VLBW) or our Expanded Database. The VLBW Database maintains information on babies with birth weight between 401 and 1500 grams, or who were born between 22 and 29 weeks gestational age. The Expanded Database maintains information on all infants treated in the NICU.

Comparison Groups
Each member center receives extensive statistical reports on their patient data, complete with comparisons to the entire Network, as well as to other NICUs of the same type. Member centers frequently wish to compare themselves to other centers within their region or hospital system. Therefore, we also give centers the option to form alliances with other member centers and to receive additional comparison data on their group.

Quality Management Reports
We provide each member center with quarterly reports to allow them to track their data over the course of the year. Centers also receive the Annual Quality Management Report, which provides detailed statistical tables of risk-adjusted mortality, morbidity, and length of stay. It also provides trend data and comparisons to the Network as a whole, as well as to other NICUs of the same type.

Confidentiality
We do not accept protected health care information. Each infant is tracked by a unique, anonymous identification number assigned by the member center.

Online Access
Members may view their statistical reports online via Nightingale. Nightingale is updated daily and allows member centers to view current and past year data by birth weight, gestational age, and birth location. Data can be compared to Network data or that of other NICUs of the same type, as well as to any group in which the center participates. Member centers can easily use Nightingale to quickly download their data in either PDF or Excel formats. Click here for samples of tables and figures

Easy Data Submission
Our special eNICQ software lets member centers submit data easily and securely over the internet. This software has built-in error-checking functions that help make data entry as accurate as possible. We are also able to accept data from other electronic data entry systems, as well as by paper submission.

Member's Area
The Member's Area is a customized tool available from our Vermont Oxford Network website. It is comprised of five main areas. The Data Management area is a new service that allows members to track their center's data submissions, error corrections and data finalization in real time. The Contact area is a quick reference to the center's Account Manager, Web Services Administrator and more. The Collaborative Learning Center, a new addition to Vermont Oxford's Web Services, is a basic set of presentations and improvement tools produced for the NICQ and iNICQ Quality Improvement collaboratives. Network Participation shows all the Vermont Oxford Projects in which the member center participates in along with basic information about each project. We have also included easy access to the Nightingale Internet Reporting System from this area.
Watch a 4 minute video tour of the new Member's Area

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Member centers have the opportunity to participate in collaborative research projects. Clinical trials currently underway include the Delivery Room Management Trial and the HeLP Trial.

The ELBW Follow-up Study has been tracking health and developmental outcomes of surviving ELBW infants at 24 months corrected age for over seven years.

The Vermont Oxford Network has established the Neonatal Encephalopathy Registry (NER) for newborn infants with encephalopathy and those treated with hypothermia. The NER identifies demographic characteristics, associated perinatal factors, medical treatments, co-morbidities and outcomes of the enrolled infants.

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We provide member centers numerous opportunities throughout the year to collaborate and network. The Annual Meeting and Quality Congress are held every December in Washington, D.C. Members from around the world gather at these events to exchange information and attend conferences on national and international issues in neonatology.

Member centers may also participate in multi-center quality improvement collaboratives. Our iNICQ program allows centers to participate with others over the internet, via web-based conferences, while our NIC/Q program allows for more intensive, face-to-face involvement.

Member centers also have the option to form a group with other member centers, with the intention of joint monitoring and quality improvement. These centers receive statistical reports for their group as a whole, in addition to their individual center reports.

We also provide the Vermont Oxford Network Newsletter, an annual bulletin in which member centers may announce projects, discuss trends in care, and exchange information regarding national and international topics in neonatology.

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