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Programs of Excellence in Clinical Care

Golden Week Program™

Charitharth Vivek Lal, M.D. is program director of the Golden Week Program™, an evidence-based, standardized, quality improvement plan, established and implemented at the UAB Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (RNICU) – to improve care and outcomes of premature infants born at gestational ages less than 28 weeks. This program involves a standardized effort to make an impact on this specific patient population’s mortality and morbidity outcomes. This standardized component encompasses the first week of life, and is further subdivided into sections that concentrate on the first hour after birth, the first 72 hours of life and then days of life four to seven. A multidisciplinary core committee includes a neonatology attending, registered nurse, neonatology fellow, nurse manager, respiratory therapist, and nurse educator. Other ancillary departments involved include Labor & Delivery, Radiology, Pharmacy, Hospital Marketing, and Nursing Informatics.


NeuroNICU-B.R.A.I.N. (Brain Rescue and Avoidance of Injury in Neonates) Program

The NeuroNICU-B.R.A.I.N. program is one of the very few programs of its kind in the country developed to prevent and early identification of brain injury in high-risk neonates. The goal of this program is to improve neurodevelopmental outcome in high-risk infants. This evidence-based quality improvement program standardizes the existing protocols and develop new protocols for the conditions that can potentially lead to brain injury and developmental impairment.


Quality Improvement Programs