Implementing Social Risk Screening and Referral to Resources in the NICU.

Objective: Social risk screening is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, but this practice is underutilized in NICUs. To address this gap in social care, we aimed to increase rates of: (1) systematic social risk screening and (2) connection with community resources, each to ≥50% over a 14-month period.

Methods: We conducted a quality improvement initiative from November 2020 to January 2022.

A Quality Improvement Project to Increase Mother's Milk Use in an Inner-City NICU.

Unlabelled: Mother's milk is recommended for preterm infants due to numerous health benefits. At our inner-city hospital, >80% of mothers of infants younger than 34 weeks' gestation initiated milk production, but fewer continued until discharge. Among infants younger than 34 weeks' gestation, we aimed to (1) increase any mother's milk use in the 24 hours before discharge/transfer to 75%; (2) increase exclusive mother's milk use in the 24 hours before discharge/transfer to 50%; and (3) reduce racial/ethnic disparities in mother's milk use.

Standard Fixed-Schedule Methadone Taper Versus Symptom-Triggered Methadone Approach for Treatment of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome.

Objectives: We compared hospitalization outcomes in infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) treated with a novel symptom-triggered methadone approach (STMA) versus a fixed-schedule methadone taper (FSMT).

Methods: This was a single-center quality-improvement study of infants pharmacologically treated for NOWS. Outcomes were compared over time by using statistical process control charts and between the baseline FSMT (July 2016-November 2017) and intervention STMA (December 2017-May 2018) groups, including median hospital length of stay (LOS), methadone treatment days, total milligrams of methadone, and need for adjunctive agents.

Quality improvement initiative to improve inpatient outcomes for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

Objectives: To improve Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) inpatient outcomes through a comprehensive quality improvement (QI) program.

Design: Inclusion criteria were opioid-exposed infants ≥36 weeks. QI methodology including stakeholder interviews and plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles were utilized.