California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative; High Risk Infant Follow-up

2011

This project builds on the highly successful California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC). The parent project has enrolled 104 Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs)within California, approximately 95% of those receiving Title V funding, into this quality-improvement collaborative effort. Medical and psychosocial data are systematically collected on mothers and their infants and serve as the framework for quality-improvement initiatives. The current project will extend data collection to include the three out-patient follow-up visits required by the Title V agency, California Children's Services. Data will include the child's age, interval medical history, psychosocial conditions, developmental standing, and referral/receipt of community-based services. The unusual features of this project are its scope and depth. Because almost all of the NICUs in California which receive Title V funds are within the collaborative, the opportunities to gather strong epidemiological data on infants in this state are exceptional. One initiative that is currently in development is an evaluation of health disparities in referral to medical and special services. A second project will evaluate the proportion of children born prematurely who have autistic features at age 2 years. Ultimately, the benefit of this project is that it will allow careful assessments of children who either thrive after prematurity and other neonatal complications or who have significant negative outcomes.

Performing Technical Assistance and/or Training

Quality Assurance

Professionals and Para-Professionals

None

State

N/A