Perinatal Quality Collaborative Vermont
Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM)
The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) is a national maternal safety and quality improvement initiative. The Perinatal Quality Collaborative Vermont (PQC-VT) joined AIM in 2020 with the goal of implementing safety bundles in all of Vermont’s birthing hospitals to improve care, prevent complications during pregnancy, and reduce the occurrence of severe maternal morbidity in pregnant Vermonters. AIM safety bundles are a standardized set of practices intended to improve patient outcomes and reduce severe maternal illness and death. These bundles improve health outcomes by supporting select structural and process measures.
Improving Care of Newborns with Substance Exposure (ICoNS)
The Improving Care of Newborns with Substance Exposure (ICoNS) project partners with the Vermont Department of Health and the University of Vermont Children's Hospital to improve health outcomes for substance-exposed newborns.
Improved health outcomes are achieved by provision of educational sessions on up-to-date recommendations and guidelines to health care professionals who provide care for pregnant people with substance use disorder and their infants.
The project also maintains a maternal and newborn population-focused database for tracking process and outcome measures. This data is used to identify gaps in care and systems related resources. The project addresses these gaps through quality improvement initiatives, focused on enhanced care processes and systems changes.
Early Childhood
Vermont Touchpoints
The Touchpoints approach is a strengths-based mindset that family-facing professionals use to engage with families during critical and challenging periods of child and family development. It is a way for professionals to learn the rhythm of the families they are supporting so that we can work alongside them and mirror the families’ own strengths and resources when the family is working through the developmental process.
Healthy child development occurs best in the context of nurturing and responsive early parent/caregiver relations. Families are facing undeniable stressors and raising children with less structural and social supports than ever before. The Touchpoints approach is a strengths-based mindset that family-facing professionals use to engage with families during critical and challenging periods of child and family development. The Touchpoints approach supports early relational health so that children have a strong foundation for lifelong growth and development.
Children with Special Health Care Needs
Child Chronic Care Initiative (CCCI)
The Child Chronic Care Initiative Team has a long history and success partnering with pediatric specialty care clinics from University of Vermont’s Children’s Hospital to engage clinical faculty in quality improvement initiatives and provide clinical guidance and technical expertise to initiatives that improve care for Medicaid eligible children and youth with chronic conditions. In partnership with VCHIP’s Health Services Research Team, we conduct data analysis to track progress and inform future improvement opportunities.
Child Population Health
Healthcare Utilization
Pediatric healthcare utilization measures serve as important indicators of the quality of health systems. The health services research team at VCHIP leverages population-level datasets to assess pediatric healthcare utilization measures, evaluate health care reform efforts, and inform future initiatives to support family and child health for Medicaid-eligible families in Vermont. A primary data source is Vermont’s all-payer claims database, governed by the Green Mountain Care Board; Vermont Healthcare Uniform Reporting and Evaluation System (VHCURES). Past and current measurement priorities include adolescent well-care visits, developmental screening, health care workforce changes, mental health screening and diagnoses, and health supervision during the perinatal period. VCHIP’s health services research team works closely with partners in the Family and Child Health division at the Vermont Department of Health, as the administrators of Vermont’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) program, to address current healthcare utilization measurement priorities.
Population Mental Health for Vermont Children, Youth, and Families
VCHIP’s Health Services Research (HSR) Team provides periodic assistance analyzing population-level mental and behavioral health data of children, youth, and families to the Vermont Department of Mental Health (DMH) Child, Adolescent & Family Unit. VCHIP’s HSR team works collaboratively with DMH to conduct policy- and practice-relevant analyses leveraging population-level mental and behavioral health data sources, including 1) Vermont Health Care Uniform Reporting and Evaluation System (VHCURES); 2) Vermont’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS); and 3) the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH).
School Age and Adolescent Health Initiative (SAAHI)
Vermont RAYS
VT RAYS (Raise Awareness for Youth Services) is a youth group focused on adolescent and young adult public health issues, with a particular interest in improving access and utilization of preventive health services. Under the leadership of the School Age and Adolescent Health Initiative (SAAHI) at the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP), and in partnership with Vermont Afterschool, the VT RAYS connect with primary care practices throughout Vermont to help identify adolescent health priority areas, increase engagement, and improve quality of youth services. Additionally, VCHIP provides opportunities to bring the youth voice and perspective to other state partners and collaborators, creating an impact at the policy level.
Provider Support
Child Health Advances Measured in Practice (CHAMP)
The CHAMP Project is a unique statewide initiative for all interested Vermont primary care practices dedicated to improving preventative services and health outcomes for Vermont children, from birth through adolescence, and their families. The voluntary network of practices is connected by, and focused on, learning about relevant clinical topics, having access to current evidence-based resources and tools, joining their colleagues in quality improvement initiatives, and participating in an important annual data collection program staffed by VCHIP.
VCHIP launched CHAMP in 2012 by building on its long-term partnerships with the University of Vermont College of Medicine, the Vermont Department of Health (VDH), the Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Vermont Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).