Improving intensive care for infants at Children’s Hospitals

The Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC) improves care for high-risk infants by providing a platform to compare quality and outcomes across the highest-level neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

Our Mission

CHNC is dedicated to improving care and outcomes for infants in Children’s Hospital NICUs through sharing of data, information and ideas for benchmarking, research and development of safety and quality improvement initiatives.

Our Story

CHNC formed in 2006 and partnered with the Child Health Corporation of America (now Children’s Hospital Association) to develop the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND). Since its launch in 2010, the CHND has grown from a collaborative of 17 member institutions to over 45 participating sites in 2022. The CHND recently transitioned from CHA to a new registry partner, WCG Velos, to launch a new platform in 2017.

CHNC membership includes the following:
A robust web-based database for all NICU admissions
Extensive Site-specific and Comparative Reporting
Benchmarking of clinical data/outcomes
Quality Improvement Collaboratives
Research participation and leadership for collaborative studies
Support for trainee career and research advancements
A well-developed support/ongoing education system for data abstractors
National leadership opportunities for physicians and nursing.
Annual symposium.
Vision Begins

2006

2007

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

CHND Development + Launch

2008

2010

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

Our Growth Continues

2011

2016

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

CHNC Becomes Independent

2017-2018

2019-2022

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

The CHNC Story

Vision Begins
CHND Development + Launch
Vision Begins
CHNC Becomes Independent

2006

2007

2008

2010

2011

2016

2017-2018

2019-2022

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

16 in-person meetings

MOP Development

17 sites founding members

Consensus on data fields and definitions

Partnered with CHCA

Launch: data entry begins: 25 sites

CIQI: SLUG Bug Collaborative

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

16 in-person meetings

MOP Development

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

16 in-person meetings

MOP Development

The CHNC Story

Vision Begins

2006

2007

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

16 in-person meetings

MOP Development

CHND Development + Launch

2008

2010

17 sites founding members

Consensus on data fields and definitions

Partnered with CHCA

Launch: data entry begins: 25 sites

CIQI: SLUG Bug Collaborative

Vision Begins

2011

2016

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

16 in-person meetings

MOP Development

CHNC Becomes Independent

2017-2018

2019-2022

Grassroots Consortium

7 sites

Vision of gaps in knowledge + needs

Development of fields and definitions

16 in-person meetings

MOP Development

Tjenester

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Our Focus

Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND) was developed to meet the data acquisition and analytics required for comparative quality and outcome measures for the unique population of medically complex neonates and infants treated in NICUs (level IV NICU patients) at children’s hospitals. Many of these high acuity infants have surgical problems, congenital anomalies or serious acquired complications of preterm birth. With an average 25-day length of stay and the multiple services they require after discharge, these infants represent one of the highest resource utilization groups of any pediatric population.

The Value of CHNC Membership and its Database

CHND is the largest clinically valid data set for this unique patient population. In addition to clinical outcomes, CHND records have been previously linked to PHIS (CHA’s administrative dataset) to analyze cost variation for disease-specific patient populations. We have opportunities to link data and analyses to other organizations and databases to provide patients, providers, and organizations with comparative data on both clinical outcomes and resource utilization in these medically complex infants.

Medically complex infants represent 23% of the patient days and 21% of the charges of a Children’s Hospital.

The US spends approximately 20% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. Since the population health of medically complex infants is a focus for our hospitals, the value of delivered health care must be assessed. NICU patients in Children’s Hospitals represent only 7-8% of the patient population for these hospitals, but because of their complex care needs and long length of stay, this patient population represents 23% of the patient days and 21% of the charges of a Children’s Hospital. So it's imperative that we invest in and apply key clinical resources like CHND, to improve the quality of care and optimize expenditures in the care of medically complex children.