Rehospitalization in the First Two Weeks After Discharge From the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

The rate of rehospitalization among NICU graduates is higher than among healthy term infants. Most of the rehospitalizations among infants with from 33 to 36 weeks' GA and <4 days' LOS are for illnesses that are not life-threatening. Collaborative studies and new process and outcomes measures are needed to assess the effectiveness of follow-up strategies in high-risk newborns.

Pediatric care for preterm infants after NICU discharge: high number of office visits and prescription medications

“…KPMCP is a group-model managed care organization with integrated information systems whose perinatal outcomes have been described. 6,13,[19][20][21][22] Exclusion criteria included death, major congenital anomalies, need for mechanical ventilation at home, placement of a ventricular peritoneal shunt or loss to follow-up in the Northern California KPMCP within 1 year from discharge. The initial source for our data was the Kaiser Permanente Neonatal Minimum Data Set, which tracks all NICU admissions in the KPMCP.…”

Late Preterm and Early Term Neonates: A New Group of High Risk Newborn in Neonatology with Varied Complications

“…Readmission rates of late preterm infants are 1.5 to 3 times that of term infants [5,33,36]. The most common causes for re-hospitalisation within 2 weeks of life includes jaundice, infection and feeding problems [5,37].…”

“…The most common causes for re-hospitalisation within 2 weeks of life includes jaundice, infection and feeding problems [5,37]. The cause of recurrent hospitalization after two weeks of age included bronchiolitis, pneumonia, fever and gastrointestinal.…”

“…This hepatic immaturity is added by delayed lactogenesis seen in mothers of these infants [40][41][42]. These all factors add up leading to high chances of jaundice and neonatal jaundice is most common cause of readmission in these infants within two weeks of life [5].…”

“…Infants delivered at late preterm and early term gestational age are at disproportionately higher risk for immediate complications like Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), Transient Tachypnea of Newborn (TTNB), neonatal sepsis, neonatal jaundice, hypoglycemia, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) admission [2,3], prolonged hospitalization and re-hospitalisation [4,5], major morbidity, death, and increased health care utilization [6]. The long term complications include poor growth, learning disorder, cerebral palsy, development of psychiatric disorders, poor fetal growth and experience mental and physical developmental delay [7][8][9].…”