Neonatal hearing screening with transient evoked otoacoustic emissions--retrospective analysis on performance parameters.

The present paper reports on the implementation of a maternity based neonatal hearing-screening program in a private hospital. A retrospective analysis is performed on the test pass rate, the coverage and the number of children that become lost to follow-up. The data show a steady learning curve with a time course of several years. In the current screening practice, the test pass rate is at 99.0%, the coverage is at 96% (birth rate of 2000 per annum) and almost no babies get lost to follow-up.