The Commonwealth of Virginia has a population of 8.3 million people and approximately 100,000 births occur here each year. Virginia has always been committed to improving maternal and infant birth outcomes through many partnerships and initiatives across the state, such as Regional Perinatal Councils in the early 1980s, but with the formation of the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative (VNPC) in early 2017 the Commonwealth recognized the benefit of the formal development of a statewide collaborative.

The statewide collaborative has quickly gained interest and excitement from many health care professionals who work with mothers and babies across the Commonwealth, as well as other state agencies and community organizations who work with young families. 

Virginia’s perinatal quality collaborative is committed to including all 54 maternity hospitals across the Commonwealth in quality improvement projects aimed at improving the inpatient care of infants and pregnant women. The VNPC has selected four initial projects: (1) Improve management of obstetric hemorrhage through implementation of the obstetric hemorrhage bundle provided by the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) at participating hospitals, (2) Reduce inpatient length of stay of infants diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) at participating hospital nurseries/NICUs, (3) Improve administration rates of 17-hydroxyprogesterone for women at risk for preterm birth, and (4) Reduce the use of inpatient intravenous antibiotics at participating hospital nurseries/NICUs.

The VNPC is determined to identify best practice models through data collection, practice comparisons, and shared outcomes for each project. By determining the best practice models for common problems facing families in the Commonwealth and implementing quality improvement projects based on these best practices, overall maternal and infant health will be improved and healthcare care expenditures reduced.