About VCHIP

VCHIP is a population-based child and family health services research and quality improvement program at the University of Vermont. Working with our public health, clinical, policy, community, and academic partners, we aim to optimize the health of Vermont's children and families by initiating and supporting measurement-based efforts to enhance private and public child health practice and inform policy. 

VCHIP has extensive experience in improvement science, public health, academic medicine, and health policy. We use our expertise to undertake quality improvement with our clinical partners, support state policy leaders in making informed decisions, and contribute to national organizations seeking system-wide transformation. At the core of our work are collaboration, measurement, and use of best practices in pursuit of a children’s health care system that is accessible, equitable, family-centered, comprehensive, and coordinated.

Our Approach

Since 1999, VCHIP has been empowering professionals to improve health care by providing systemic expertise, tools and practical support, collaboration, and quantitative evaluation.  

System-level focus: Our efforts focus on systems-level activities—whether at the practice level, the network level, or statewide—that continually improve the care clinicians and other health care providers offer children and families. We seek to develop and support processes and policies that enable innovative solutions and inform public health policy as we continue to strive together toward the right care, for every person, every time.

Expertise and tools: We bring our proven knowledge and experience with best practices to all our projects and engage local and national experts to advise the process. VCHIP supports our partners in their efforts to enhance care by providing tools and techniques to improve the health of specific populations. Through research in the latest evidenced-based guidelines, we develop educational materials and tools to better inform health care practices and provide consultation and training on how to integrate best practices into current care delivery systems.

Collaboration: The success of VCHIP is largely dependent upon the strength of our interdisciplinary collaboration with public and private entities that shape children's health care. VCHIP uses these partnerships of researchers, practitioners, insurers, professional organizations, families and youth, and government to build a shared vision of quality health care for children and families. We also accelerate system improvement through multi-level discussions in which health and child professionals learn from one another.

Measurement and evaluation: We actively support improvement in health care systems through measurement-based assessments of current care delivery. By providing practical feedback and support, we help clinicians and others identify specific and achievable improvements, test changes and track progress in the health outcomes of children and families.

VCHIP also provides expertise to organizations outside Vermont that share our mission. We encourage conversations across the many organizations serving children and families, and we offer technical assistance to help inform state and national policy. VCHIP also serves as the home for the National Improvement Partnership Network.

Our work centers around our primary goals to:

  1. Promote the will for change with quality improvement tools, evidence-based guidelines, and expert coaching to aid practitioners in their efforts to achieve optimal health care for children, youth, and families.
  2. Support collaboration among public and private health organizations to facilitate meaningful and sustainable improvements in health delivery systems.
  3. Share results of successful measurement-based initiatives through trainings and publications that disseminate best practices, highlight effective models of care, and inform policy.
  4. Translate new research and methods into practice by combining our expertise in the fields of improvement science, public health, academic and clinical medicine, and health policy.

Our Focus Areas

VCHIP works across the age spectrum, across settings, and across areas affecting child and family well-being. Our current projects include extensive work across Perinatal Health, Early Childhood, School Age and Adolescence, and Chronic Care initiatives, among other areas. VCHIP has also been called upon to act as a resource for many national initiatives aimed at enhancing private and public maternal and child health practice.

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