The Vermont Oxford Network (VON) is one of the largest neonatal performance databases in existence, with over 950 participating Neonatal Intensive Care Units around the world. They collect detailed information on newborn intensive care unit (NICU) performance and provide a benchmark for quality patient care. These are their key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow participating NICU’s to see how their performance compares to the Network performance as a whole. In general, the KPIs represent complications of prematurity, and as such, the lower the rates of these complications, the better the care is likely to be.

Significant measurable improvements have been made since 2006, when orchestrated efforts were made to improve the approach to neonatal care in Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center’s NICU. All of the KPIs have consistently improved to the point where we now compare extremely favorably to all NICU’s in the Vermont Oxford Network’s database, and in many areas we are now consistently better than the majority of NICUs in Louisiana, the United States and around the world.