141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

284982
Applying QI methods to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates in US hospitals

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 8:30 AM - 8:48 AM

Martha Rome, MPH, RN , NICHQ, Boston, MA
Jennifer Ustianov , NICHQ, Boston, MA
Pat Heinrich, RN, MSN , NICHQ, Boston, MA
Responding to the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Breastfeeding Quality, the Best Fed Beginnings initiative is helping hospitals improve exclusive breastfeeding rates by improving maternity practices to better support mothers who choose to breastfeed. Sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and conducted by NICHQ (the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality), Best Fed Beginnings is a nationwide quality improvement initiative at 89 hospitals designed to increase the number of Baby-Friendly hospitals in the United States. The initiative is using quality improvement methods to accelerate the pace of change in practice and embed these evidence-based care processes into routine hospital and linked community practices. Through the 18-month quality improvement learning collaborative, hospitals are learning how to move from guidelines to measurable improvements in practice and health outcomes. This session will describe successes and challenges of using quality improvement to improve maternity care and infant feeding, and will highlight a series of improvement cycles (PDSAs) that led to improved practice and reduced unwanted variation in practice patterns, while allowing for innovation and customization at the local level.

Learning Areas:
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
Identify emerging lessons regarding exclusive breastfeeding promotion in hospitals based on data from the Best Fed Beginnings initiative. Explain how hospitals participating in this national collaborative are changing maternity practices to better support mothers who choose to breastfeed. Describe how to use quality improvement methodology to help birthing centers make system-level changes that support exclusive breastfeeding.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, Quality Improvement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Project Director working on the Best Fed Beginnings project and have extensive history in quality improvement, having served as the Director of the IHI Triple Aim at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.