NICQ 2009 Quality Improvement Collaborative

NICQ 2009, the two year quality improvement collaborative for multidisciplinary NICU teams that began in January 2009 is the 6th in a series of intensive NICQ collaboratives sponsored by the Vermont Oxford Network. NICQ 2009 is comprised of multidisciplinary teams including parents from 53 NICUs and leadership teams from eight state groups that will work together for two years under the guidance of an expert faculty to fulfill this vision:

"To be an inclusive Community of Practice that supports the pursuit of shared goals for improvement and the provision of exemplary care for all newborn infants and their families."

• Provide care that is always family centered, safe, effective, equitable, timely, efficient, and socially and environmentally responsible.
• Apply four key habits for improvement in our daily practice: the habit for evidence based practice, the habit for change, the habit for systems thinking, and the habit for collaborative learning.
• Hold ourselves accountable to patients, families, colleagues, and to the communities in which we live and work by incorporating measurement into our daily practice.
• Treat each other with respect.

• Make measurable improvements in Quality & Safety
• Engage families as team members for improvement
• Foster a worldwide Community of Practice for newborn care in which knowledge, tools, and resources for improvement are developed, managed, shared, and applied.

The NICQ 2009 participants will meet face to face twice each year over two years. The meetings include interactive plenary sessions as well as blocks of time for teams to work intensively together with experts on specific improvement topics. The participating teams have chosen to work on one of the following nine topics: NICU Design, Resuscitation and Stabilization, Medication Safety, Nutrition, Electronic Medical Record, Infection, Respiratory Care, Discharge Management and Encephalopathy. Each Topic Group of 4-9 NICUs has a faculty trio including an expert, a quality improvement facilitator or coach, and a member of a participating team serving as a clinical leader. Topic specific Quality Improvement Starter Kits identifying Potentially Better Practices have been provided to the Topic Groups to jump start their improvement work. Between meetings, Topic Group participants will communicate through conference calls and dedicated email discussion lists. VON is working in concert with the Institute for Family Centered Care (IFCC) to ensure that the voice of parents is clearly represented in our NICQ improvement work.

In partnership with the Cambridge Leadership Associates, we are offering a series of four special half day workshops, Leading for Improvement, which will precede the main meetings of NICQ. This optional series is designed to help leaders from participating NICUs and state groups develop the individual and team leadership skills necessary to create a culture of improvement in their units and organizations.

To support our Community of Practice, VON is developing NICQpedia, a web-based repository for our Quality Improvement work. NICQ participants have access to and are expected to contribute to NICQpedia. The Quality Improvement Starter Kits reside on NICQpedia wiki pages that will be refined by NICQ members during the course of the Collaborative. Improvement Stories, developed by teams and shared as posters at the NICQ meetings, will be posted to NICQpedia to provide valuable practice improvement implementation stories. This exciting tool will enhance collaboration as well as archive the tremendous work of this group. Our plan is to make NICQpedia available to all VON centers in 2011.

January 2009 to December 2010: Two year commitment

• Multidisciplinary NICU teams including parents
• Interactive plenary sessions with team exercises
• Concurrent sessions for learning and applying improvement science
• Learning communities with expert support
• Opportunities for both experienced and novice participants
• New applications of video and simulation to process improvement
• Conference calls, email discussion lists, and optional site visits