New study analyzes NICU utilization trends
NICU utilization trends have yet to be thoroughly investigated.
Recent studies have found that neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions, initial hospitalized days, short stays, and additional NICU utilization trends vary significantly in the United States health care system.1 However, NICU utilization trends have yet to be thoroughly investigated.
A new report in JAMA Network Open set out to explore NICU utilization trends using the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health care system. Participants included every woman who gave birth in a Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospital, and her newborn, from January 2010 to December 2018.
Trends studied included NICU admission, NICU patient-days, readmission rates and mortality rates.
In those 8 years, 320,340 births occurred, and researchers found that NICU utilization had decreased. However, researchers noted that it did not lead to an increase in readmissions or mortality.
For more information about this study and its additional findings, visit Contemporary Pediatrics.
Reference
- Silberstein D, Litmanovitz I. Harefuah. 2016;155(1):27-67.
