Tennessee Hospitals Lead the Nation in Improving Care for Opioid-Exposed Infants and Families
State achieves State of Excellence in Education and Training award for neonatal abstinence syndrome
Vermont Oxford Network (VON) has awarded a “State of Excellence in Education and Training for Infants and Families Affected by Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome” designation to the state of Tennessee in partnership with the Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPQC) and supported by Vermont Oxford Network with the goal of standardizing care for infants and families affected by neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
The award recognizes that at least 85 percent of multidisciplinary care teams participating in the “Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Collaborative: Improving Care to Improve Outcomes” completed universal training for care of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
Neonatal abstinence syndrome is drug withdrawal syndrome experienced by infants exposed to opioids while in utero. Infants born with NAS are more likely to have respiratory complications, feeding difficulty, low birthweights, and extended hospital stays.
Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPCQ) partnered with VON to provide 30 hospitals universal training designed to standardize care policies. The collaborative approach to universal training included rapid-cycle distribution of current evidence-based practices to the entire interdisciplinary workforce engaged in caring for substance-exposed infants and families. This approach has been proven to reduce length of hospital stay and length of pharmacologic treatment while increasing family satisfaction.
“Congratulations to all the care teams across the state of Tennessee who have shown how dedicated the state is to caring for the most vulnerable population affected by the national opioid epidemic,” said Jeffrey Horbar, Chief Executive and Scientific Officer of VON.
As a global leader in data-driven quality improvement for newborn care, VON leads multi-center quality improvement collaboratives and provides resources to help interdisciplinary teams improve on the most critical and complex challenges facing newborn caregivers. While more than 250 centers nationwide have completed VON’s universal training for NAS, Tennessee is the third statewide collaborative to achieve the Excellence in Education and Training distinction.
