Does early discharge with nurse home visits affect adequacy of newborn metabolic screening?

Objective: To examine the impact of early discharge on newborn metabolic screening.

Study Design: Metabolic screening results were obtained from the Alabama State Lab for all infants born at our hospital between 8/1/97, and 1/31/99, and were matched with an existing database of early discharge infants. An early newborn discharge was defined as a discharge between 24 and 47 hours of age.

Compliance with vision-screening guidelines among a national sample of pediatricians.

Objective: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends vision screening from birth through adolescence, with visual acuity testing and binocular screening to begin at age 3 years. The 1996 AAP guidelines advised referral for visual acuity worse than 20/40 for children aged 3 to 5 years and worse than 20/30 for children aged 6 years and older. Our objective was to describe vision-screening and referral practices in a national sample of primary care pediatricians.