About NICHQ
Our Mission
Better children's health and healthcare through quality improvement.
Our Vision
All children achieve their optimal health.
NICHQ (the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality) is an independent, nonprofit organization working for more than a decade to make children’s health and healthcare better through quality improvement.
We help healthcare professionals and delivery organizations, foundations, government agencies, and community organizations make meaningful and sustainable system improvements so the children they serve can achieve their optimal health.
NICHQ (pronounced "nich-cue") stems from the vision of a team of pediatric and public health leaders who saw a critical need to improve children’s healthcare so all children receive high-quality services. That original vision continues and has expanded beyond clinical settings to include a focus on many other social and community determinants of children’s health.
The organization was formed in 1999 with start-up funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and functioned as a program of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) until it was incorporated as an independent, not-for-profit organization in July 2002. NICHQ now has a staff of more than 50 people, most of whom work in our home office in Boston, Massachusetts.
Since its founding, NICHQ has been working to improve systems related to a variety of conditions and topics:
- ADHD
- Asthma
- Autism
- Breastfeeding
- Childhood Obesity
- Children and Youth with Special Healthcare Needs
- Cystic Fibrosis
- Family-Centered Medical Homes
- Foster Care
- Low Birth Weight
- Newborn Hearing Screening
- Parental Involvement on Improvement Teams
- Sickle Cell Disease
See a brochure about NICHQ.
