Impact of community neonatal services: a multicentre survey.

Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed

Health R & D NoW, Institute for Health Research, Bowland Tower East, Lancaster University, UK.

Published: November 2002

Objectives: To explore the impact of a community neonatal service on high risk infant survivors in the first year of life.

Design: Retrospective multicentre survey. Postal questionnaires were sent to selected parents.

Setting: Thirty two neonatal units in England and Wales.

Inclusion Criteria: infants over 12 months of age with birth weight < or =1500 g, or who received level I intensive care for at least 48 hours.

Exclusion Criteria: multiple births, infants who had died or had severe congenital abnormalities. A total of 3367 eligible infants were selected, and their parents were sent a questionnaire; 65% responded.

Main Outcome Measures: Length of stay on the neonatal unit from birth to initial discharge. Readmission to hospital during the first year of life.

Results: The median length of stay in units with a community neonatal service was 35 days compared with 37 days in units without. When adjusted for infant and parent characteristics, the median length of stay was reduced by 12.6% where a community neonatal service was provided (95% confidence interval 5.3% to 19.3%). The readmission rates were 44.6% in units with a community neonatal service and 43.5% in units without. There was no significant reduction in the adjusted odds of readmission.

Conclusions: The retrospective nature of this study means that these findings cannot be definitely attributed to the presence of a community neonatal service. However, the results suggest that community neonatal services may reduce the length of stay without any subsequent increase in readmission.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1721488PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/fn.87.3.f204DOI Listing

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