Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative Working Together for Healthier Moms and Babies in Illinois

The Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC) has become a national leader in statewide quality improvement (QI) in the three years since its launch expanding from 50 to over 100 participating birthing hospitals, efficiently facilitating QI initiatives with an effective QI model and strategies, and demonstrating steady improvement in reaching our goals for optimized care and improved outcomes for moms and babies in hospitals across Illinois (IL). IL ranks in the top five states with the most births in the nation. In 2014, 158,556 babies were born in IL and 10.2% of these births were preterm, with African American babies 1.5 times more likely to be born preterm and 2.5 times more likely to be very low birth weight (VLBW). In 2012, the IL Perinatal Advisory Committee Prematurity Task Force report to the IL legislature recommended that “resources be provided for a perinatal quality collaborative to work in tandem with the Regionalized Perinatal System (RPS).” Support from the IL CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant and March of Dimes brought the Perinatal Quality Collaborative of Illinois (PQCI), a neonatology-focused collaborative started in 2008, together with obstetric (OB) leadership to form a state¬wide perinatal quality collaborative in November 2013. In the past three years, ILPQC has built upon the partnership with IDPH with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and IDPH to facilitate a three pillar model of QI providing participating hospitals (1) opportunities for collaborative learning, (2) rapid-response data, and (3) QI support. ILPQC successfully completed three statewide QI initiatives with demonstrated improved outcomes. The Early Elective Delivery (EED) Initiative (2013 to 2014) resulted in a reduction in EEDs at 37-38 weeks gestation from 2.33% (2013, quarter 1) to 1.81% (2014, quarter 4) in 47 hospitals. The Neonatal Nutrition Initiative (2014) resulted in a reduction in VLBW infants discharged with weights less