This email will be short and sweet-we are working hard on the learning sessions for January and eager to meet your "travel team" in Winston Salem.  Learning sessions will shift our focus to potentially better practices to increase the number of mothers who provide breast milk for their <1500 gram infant for the first 28 days of life.

Critical to determining the effectiveness of changes your facility makes during this initiative are baseline and ongoing measurement. 

Last week we held four data meetings to introduce and discuss data entry. There was minimal attendance, and based on anecdotal comments from some across the state, we are concerned that some centers may not have the data necessary to establish a representative baseline that will guide the work we are contemplating.  The data set presents some challenges but it is necessary to help guide efforts undertaken by your teams to move your facility to the goal of an increase in exclusive human milk by 50%. 

To that end we have three requests for you:

1.       Data entry can only be saved for shifts that have all required data elements completed.  We need all these required elements.  Please make every effort possible to develop methods which will allow forms to be completed fully. 

2.       While some of your data sheets may be incomplete and unable to be entered in the data system, we would still like the opportunity to review that data.  Please copy and send us  your data collection forms as soon as possible and before January 5, 2011:

Karen Metzguer

Department of Pediatrics, UNC,

CB # 7596

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7596

3.       Please review and follow the instructions in the email sent by Keith on December 20th with subject "PQCNC Milk Well Baby DATA is now LIVE!" Email either Keith or me if you do not know your facility code.

Our goal is to make this initiative valuable for your facility.  We cannot do so without baseline and ongoing measures.  Every facility will face individual challenges in developing data collection methods, but we need to all accept that this is the first and necessary step for a productive initiative.  It is then that the real fun and opportunity begins - examining our practice and developing changes which will promote the exclusive use of human milk in our hospitals.

Please let us know how we can assist you in this process and best wishes for a wonderful winter holiday!