The Grow, Babies, Grow! project will help NICUs optimize growth and nutrition of VLBW infants, with the goal of reducing growth failure at discharge.
Why we care about this topic
- 38% of very low birth weight babies across California are leaving the NICU having fallen one full standard deviation or more from their initial birth weight parameters, compromising their future growth and neurodevelopmental potential later in childhood.
- This rate only increases for the most vulnerable infants, with more than half of babies born at less than 1,000 grams experiencing this same sub-optimal growth.
Our approach
The Grow, Babies, Grow! project uses the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)'s collaborative quality improvement model, which brings together multiple sites to focus on improving clinical practices in a particular area relative to their own baseline data. Participating sites benefit from:
- Access to evidence-based change packages
- The opportunity to benchmark, track and compare data between their site and other participating sites
- Participation in a “community of learning” where lessons learned, materials, data, and strategy are shared across sites
- Guidance in both quality improvement and the clinical area of focus from a multidisciplinary panel of experts from across the state
- Credit towards the QI requirements of the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Program.
Timeline
Grow, Babies, Grow! launched in October 2018. The active phase of the collaborative ended in September 2019 and was followed by an 18-month sustainability phase.
Questions about Grow, Babies, Grow!?
Email Courtney Nisbet, Associate Director of Quality Improvement at courtney@cpqcc.org.