National Improvement Partnership Network (NIPN)

Transforming maternal and child healthcare

The National Improvement Partnership Network (NIPN) is the national coordinating center for states' Improvement Partnerships (IP). Together with our member IPs, we accelerate pediatric delivery system transformation through the implementation and dissemination of quality improvement knowledge and innovation.

What We Achieve

NIPN, and its member IPs, is a multi-state community that:

• Scales and spreads quality improvement frameworks and practices,
• Develops and tests quality measures (e.g. obesity and asthma),
• Responds to clients' implementation needs within a variety of health care settings, and
• Impacts:
  • Prevention (e.g., addressing immunization rates and obesity),
  • Early intervention (e.g., developmental screening and services), and
  • Effective treatment (e.g., asthma management).

The work of NIPN and member IPs has led to improved child health quality, outcomes, and evidence-based standards across a range of topics:

How We Do It

• Test quality measures at a multi-state level
• Translate scientific evidence and expert guidelines into daily practice
• Provide technical assistance to implement quality improvement initiatives at the provider level
• Align local priorities and develop local solutions
• Leverage the resources of multiple agencies and organizations
• Bring clinical expertise and quality improvement experience to state policy discussions

Partner with NIPN and member IPs to support care improvement, achieve more evidence based standards of care, spread innovation, and adapt and implement quality measures for use.

Improvement Partnerships

Learn more about Improvement Partnerships and how they are making real changes in the provision of care provided to children.

Evaluation of Improvement Partnerships

Through funding from Maine and Vermont’s CHIPRA Quality Demonstration grant, AcademyHealth, the professional society for health services researchers, policy analysts and practitioners based in Washington DC, conducted an evaluation of the Improvement Partnership model. The purpose of the evaluation was to understand whether the Improvement Partnerships have made measurable improvements in the quality of children’s healthcare that have resulted in impacts on delivery system costs and child and adolescent health outcomes.

View the evaluation, A Case Study of Improvement Partnerships in New Mexico and Oregon: Evolving State Quality Improvement Infrastructure and the Role of Improvement Partnerships and NIPN.

History

In July 2009, under the leadership of VCHIP and in response to growing interest across the states who had been part of the IP movement to date, the National Improvement Partnership Network (NIPN) was established as a mechanism to more formally pool resources and share learnings between and across developing and existing IP programs. NIPN works to

 

1. convene its member states for monthly conference calls and annual national meetings and trainings
2. facilitate peer-to-peer learning and connections across IP states and
3. serve as a repository for tools, measures, evaluation resources and other materials.