PQCNC NEW NEWBORN/NICU INITIATIVE CHOSEN

8 years 3 days ago

The biannual PQCNC Leadership Team meeting was held this week at NC State University. Thirty three attendees representing multiple perinatal facilities, senior leadership from health systems, families and patients, leaders from DPH, NCHA,  and ACOG, BCBSNC, and DHHS. Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services Randall Williams opened the meeting with an overview of his vision for healthcare in North Carolina, challenging the Team to continue the advances in perinatal health we have seen over the last century. Over the day we reviewed PQCNC activities over the last year and the impact of the incredible work you all have done. 

We also reviewed the results of voting at the March 2 general meeting on next newborn/NICU initiatives. Nine projects were presented at the meeting. They were all reviewed by the Leadership Team. Discussion centered on the top four vote-getters which were Psychosocial Support in the NICU (Alison Steube), Antibiotic Stewardship and Sepsis (Jamie Haushalter and Julie Oliver), Transition of the NAS Baby Home (Lee Shirland and Rita Gunter) and Improving the Accuracy of the Birth Certificate (Arthur Ollendorff).

The recommendation of the PQCNC core team was two-fold.  First, given the importance of the work, that we immediately begin development of Antibiotic Stewardship/Newborn Sepsis as a full Initiative for the upcoming year. That work is already underway and your participation is needed on the newly forming expert team.  Second, that we begin a staged exploration of the remaining initiatives to see how they can be best adapted to support the work/serve the needs of our teams.

The Leadership Team, after making certain we felt we had adequate resources, approved our recommendation.

This has been an amazing PQCNC month. The devotion of so many to the welfare of families across the state has never been more visible to me. Thank you for your commitment to mission and your sense of duty to the mothers, babies and families we care for - it is humbling to be part of an organization so determined to make North Carolina the best place to give birth and be born