The Pediatric Quality Award is taking a break in 2019 so that award categories can be redesigned to reflect the rapid evolution of quality strategies in pediatrics over the past five years and the future directions of children’s hospitals. A schedule for the next award cycle has not yet been determined. More information will be available in early 2020 regarding the next PQA cycle.
The Pediatric Quality Award honors and spreads successful improvement initiatives that children's hospitals of every size can replicate to improve care.
Every two years, CHA member hospitals submit their improvement projects that have made a big impact in patient safety, financial performance and hospital culture. An expert panel of peers and international health care experts selects the winners.
2017 Award
Judges selected 13 semifinalists, and the overall and category winners from a record 110 entries submitted by 60 hospitals in four categories. CHA honored the semifinalists and announced the winners on March 6 during the 2018 Quality & Safety Conference.
View press release.
Find the full entry and recorded presentations for winners and semifinalists through the entry links below.
Yale New Haven team with CHA's Mimi Safer (second from right).
Yale New Haven Children's Hospital named overall winner
Yale New Haven Children's Hospital received CHA's top quality improvement award for a four-year project to improve serious safety event (SSE) reporting, recognition and interventions that would decrease the SSE rate to zero. The hospital also saw an 852 percent increase in event reporting, and avoided $3 million in SSEs-related health care costs. Yale New Haven's project won the Delivery System Transformation category as well as the overall award.
Reducing Serious Safety Events in a Children's Hospital 
Summary (PDF)
Category winners
Clinical care
For the first time, judges named two hospitals as category winners, distinguished by their areas of focus: primary care and sub-specialty care.
Primary Care Award
Quality Improvement in Primary Care: Reducing Emergency Department Visits in Children with Asthma
Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
Outcomes over six years: 24 percent drop in asthma-related ED visits and $5.2 million reduction in ED costs.
Summary (PDF)
Specialty Care Award
Code Yellow
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee
Outcomes over two years: 89 percent of targeted patient population received antibiotics within 60 minutes, an increase of 59 percent.
Summary (PDF)
Patient safety and reduction of harm
Getting To Zero: Eliminating Unplanned Extubations in the PICU
Ochsner Hospital for Children, New Orleans, Louisiana
Outcomes over two years: 43 fewer unnecessary hospital days and $240,000 savings.
Summary (PDF)
Waste reduction/improved efficiency
Reducing Waste of Isoproterenol, a High-cost Medication, Across Multiple Hospital Settings
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Outcomes over two years: $1.2 million in drug spend savings and $1.4 million annual waste cost reduction.
Summary (PDF)
Semifinalists
Reduction in Hospital Days Using a Multidisciplinary Approach for Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Disease
Category: Waste Reduction/Improved Efficiency
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut
The hospital reduced hospital days by 61 percent, saving more than a half-million dollars in one year.
Use of Toyota Production System (TPS) Principles to Improve Total Parenteral Nutrition Logistics and Clinical Outcomes in our Most Vulnerable Patient Population
Category: Waste Reduction/Improved Efficiency
Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, Norfolk, Virginia
The hospital reduced the interdepartmental processing time for Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) by about five hours.
Transforming Ambulatory CLABSI Education, Awareness and Prevention Across an Organization and Beyond
Category: Delivery System Transformation
Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska
The hospital reduced ambulatory CLABSI rates by more than 50 percent.
Decreasing Blood Culture Contamination in a Children’s Hospital
Category: Patient Safety and Reduction of Harm
Children’s of Mississippi, Jackson
The hospital reduced the blood culture contamination rate by 1.3 percent and achieved significant cost reduction.
Reducing Hospitalization with Nurse-driven Asthma Treatment
Category: Clinical Care
Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake City
A nurse-initiated project reduced hospital admissions from the ED for patients with asthma by one-third, dramatically cutting costs.
Preventing CLABSI Through Leader Engagement, Data Management and Evidence-based Practices 
Category: Patient Safety and Reduction of Harm
Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora
This hospital sought to become more compliant to its CLABSI bundle, and reduce the frequency of infections.
Improving the Value of Send-out Laboratory Testing Through Laboratory Test Stewardship
Category: Waste Reduction/Improved Efficiency
Seattle Children’s Hospital
The hospital implemented a case review program to streamline the process and improve reimbursement.
Improving the Care of Children in Foster Care: An Academic-community QI Collaborative
Category: Delivery System Transformation
Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center, Durham, North Carolina
The hospital improved access to and timing of initial medical care for children entering foster care in its county.