What is the NHPIP?
Started in 2013, the New Hampshire Pediatric Improvement Partnership (NHPIP) is a Program of the NH Citizens Health Initiative, coordinated by the Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH, with Medical Director leadership from the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (see graphic below). The NHPIP is a state-level multi-disciplinary collaborative of private and public partners dedicated to improving health care quality for all NH children through the use of systems and measurement-based quality improvement processes. We do this through:
- Promoting awareness of and interest in pediatric care quality measurement, projects, and resources.
- Facilitating dialogue to identify and act upon pediatric care quality opportunities in NH.
- Conducting and/or collaborating on pediatric quality improvement projects.
Why the focus on pediatrics?
For many different reasons, including:
- Addressing illness, injury, and functional delays as early and comprehensively as possible is paramount to creating healthy, productive adults. For example, addressing developmental, behavioral, and social concerns early is key to later academic and career success.
- Accessing the healthcare system is often more challenging for children as they typically travel further for general and specialty care and are dependent on others to get to care.
- Children are the most economically disadvantaged and racially/ethnically diverse age group in NH, which are risk factors for poor health.
- We are able to identify pediatric health care quality concerns due to improved data systems.
- Families as opposed to the patient are predominantly the healthcare decision-makers, hence family engagement plays a critical role in care delivery.