Knoxville, Tennessee, December 9, 2024 – The Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPQC) just completed the state Severe Intraventricular Hemorrhage (sIVH) Project, improving the outcomes of infants born less than or equal to 29.6 weeks gestational age.
In December of 2022, The University of Tennessee Medical Center’s Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit joined TIPQC and all the Level III and IV Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) from across the state to achieve a 25% relative reduction in slVH in this population, as well as an overall 25% reduction in mortality. This project has just gone into sustainment, with hospitals continuing to track their sIVH rates and mortality.
Substantial changes were made to our NICU nursing IVH guidelines with this project that resulted in improvements at delivery, on admission to the NICU, and for duration of the hospital admission. This project helped start the formation of our small baby team, giving NICU nurses and RRTs voices in how to care for these fragile infants. We recruited a parent advocate for IVH, a crucial part of our team who helped develop a parent education flyer. The neonatologists and perinatologists developed a “gray zone” checklist for OB and neonatal providers which has improved consistency in how they talk to parents about the care the infant will receive in the delivery room and NICU. Our primary goal is providing excellent care and improving outcomes for Tennessee’s Tiniest Babies with our multidisciplinary team.
The University of Tennessee Medical Center was one of two (2) hospitals in the state of Tennessee to achieve a Platinum QI rating which consisted of active project participation including huddles and coaching calls, monthly outcome and structure data capture, data driven QI work, clinical change implementation, and decreasing the rates of sIVH as well as decreasing mortality.