CPQCC/CCS HRIF Quality of Care Initiative

Goal

This initiative is a collaboration between the Division of Neonatal & Developmental Medicine and California Children's Services, a Title V organization. It represents a quality improvement project, designed to maximize the neurodevelopmental outcomes of California’s high-risk infants by age 3 years.

Major Outcomes

If this project is successful, it will result in the following major outcomes:

• Development of a Standardized California’s HRIF program with respect to timing, components of evaluation, and case management (spectrum of needed intervention resources, and assessment of success in obtaining the recommended resources, and an evaluation of the specific barriers to each resource). The program would serve as a model to the nation. This project leads to the identification of a number of unmet needs among the children and their families.
• Development of a case management profile for the purpose of managing patient resources including provider reimbursement for services, coordination of benefits, paying for services to infants with non-qualifying conditions, ensuring “Medical Home” for all HRIF infants, and monitoring whether or not the infant’s actual service profile reflects the recommended service profile.
• Provision of information to providers, health systems and policy makers regarding HRIF standards of care and their availability (e.g., recommended therapies) as well as estimations of the number of infants requiring specific services as infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school age children.
• Early identification of California’s population of infants who would benefit from HRIF services, assessment of the percentage of infants who are actually referred to and receive HRIF services, and assessment of the percentage of infants that complete their HRIF program.
• Provision of 3-year, risk-adjusted outcomes to hospital of birth and/or hospital of neonatal care.
• Development of a case management profile for the purpose of tracking movement of infants through the HRIF program and decreasing the numbers of infants lost to follow-up.
• Conferred value to HRIF providers by creating an interactive, electronic monitoring system that will enhance clinical care and documentation at the point of care.
• Provision of a HRIF research database for the purpose of conducting internal and collaborative research.