NNEPQIN

Vermont: PQC-VT

PQC Goals 

PQC-VT is Vermont’s resource for perinatal and infant health. Through a partnership with the Family and Child Health Division at the Vermont Department of Health (VDH), the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) implements projects impacting perinatal people, infants, and their families under the PQC-VT umbrella. PQC-VT mobilizes state networks to implement quality improvement efforts and improve systems of care for perinatal people, infants, and their families.

Our mission is to optimize care and health outcomes for perinatal people and infants through collaboration and continuous quality improvement.

Our goal is to improve care and health outcomes of Vermont’s pregnant people, newborns and their families by: 

  • Setting Perinatal Outcome Priorities: Actively engage perinatal health care professionals, maternal and child health public health experts and community-based partners in developing a common agenda by highlighting current successes and gaps in perinatal care and identifying specific pregnancy and infant health outcomes to focus on across the state. 
  • Providing Outreach and Education: Build relationships across sectors including hospitals, outpatient practices, community-based organizations, state health programs, and families to address current and emerging perinatal issues, and provide opportunities for collaborative learning on the latest best practices. 
  • Advancing Quality Improvement Efforts: Mobilize perinatal health care teams in continuous quality improvement efforts for better health outcomes, and disseminate successful system approaches throughout the state. Develop quality metrics appropriate for perinatal health care. 
  • Monitoring Health Care Outcomes: Efficiently analyze available perinatal and public health datasets to gauge quality improvement work and opportunity, evaluate program implementation, and perform surveillance of health outcomes.

Projects

  1. Engaging People with Lived Experience
  1. Perinatal Education & Clinical Skills Trainings
  • Educational Webinar Series – The PQC-VT team collaborates on a webinar series for perinatal audiences. Webinars address relevant perinatal topics and routinely highlight clinical/community connections in Vermont
  • NeoSIM Clinical Skills Training –  Support neonatal preparedness using in person skills training with clinical management scenarios 
    https://www.uvm.edu/d10-files/documents/2025-02/VCHIP_PQC-VT-NeoSim-Clinical-Skills-Training-Flyer-24-25.pdf 
  • OB Drill training Skills – the AIM nurse educator supports the community hospitals with in-person OB Skills Simulation Trainings. The training sessions are scheduled as requested by hospitals.
  1. AIM Patient Safety Bundles
  • The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) is a national maternal safety and quality improvement initiative.  Vermont joined AIM in 2020 with the goal of implementing safety bundles in all of Vermont’s birthing hospitals to improve patient care.
  • The goal of implementing safety bundles is to improve the clinical structures and processes of care and improve patient outcomes for pregnant and postpartum Vermonters throughout the state. This is done with standardized, actionable steps that have been proven to reliably improve patient care. 
  • Current Maternal Safey Bundles Include:
    • Obstetric Hemorrhage
    • Severe Hypertension in Pregnancy
    • Cardiac Conditions
    • Care for Pregnant and Postpartum Individuals with Substance Use
  1. Birth Certificate Quality Improvement Initiative (BCQII)
  • Convene Vermont community hospital providers and Health Information Management offices (HIM) staff to engage in quality improvement efforts to improve accuracy of the Vermont birth certificate data.
  1. Bidirectional Learning for Improved Support and Services (BLISS) 
  1. Annual Statistics Report & Conferences 
  • The Annual Report of Perinatal Statistics for Vermont Community Hospitals is an analysis of perinatal data for ten Vermont community hospitals with obstetric services. The report includes data reported by hospital staff and data reported to the Vermont Department of Health including birth certificate data, immunization registry data and newborn screening registry data. 
  • The report results are shared annually with community hospitals in the spring through annual stats conferences to review perinatal outcomes data in the context of key maternal and newborn quality indicators. 
  1. Improving Care of Newborns with Substance Exposure (ICoNs) 
  • ICoNs project partners with the Vermont Department of Health and the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital to improve care of newborns with substance exposure. 
  • Provide educational sessions for healthcare professionals to enhance outcomes for pregnant people with substance use disorders and their infants
  1. Supporting Exchange of Information & Communication
  • Nurse Manager Collaborative Listserv – the team manages an active listserv for the community hospital nurse managers and nurse leaders from tertiary care. The listserv facilitates communication and sharing across hospitals as well as linkages to the PQC-VT team faculty experts for complex clinical care management questions. 
  • PQC-VT Listserv – The team utilizes the PQC-VT listserv to promote relevant perinatal initiatives across its perinatal network of professionals. All PQC-VT education and outreach events are advertised through this listserv as well as VDH/FCH events.  
  • Nurse Manager Meetings – The PQC-VT team holds Nurse Manager meetings (both virtual and in-person) throughout the year. 

9. Upcoming Focus: Regional PQCs

Website 

Contact Information VHCHIP.PQCVT@med.uvm.edu