Investigators from the University of California, San Francisco studied the yield of continuous video EEG (vEEG) in diagnosing electrographic seizures in their neonatal intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE Multidisciplinary teams from 11 medical center neonatal intensive care units collaborated in a quality improvement project with a focus on family-centered care. METHODS Through a process of self-analysis, literature review, benchmarking site visits, and expert consultation, 10 potentially better practice (PBP) areas were defined. Improvement activities in 4 of the 10 areas are given...

OBJECTIVE Part of the process of deriving and refining the CARE (communication, accountability, respect, empowerment) focus group's potentially better practices (PBPs) for multidisciplinary teamwork was to evaluate and experience the PBPs through implementation. METHODS The 4 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the CARE focus group each worked with implementation of the PBPs. The choice ...

OBJECTIVE To identify satisfaction with neonatal intensive care as viewed by parents and healthcare professionals and to explore similarities and differences between parents and healthcare professionals. STUDY DESIGN A 3-round Delphi method to identify neonatal care issues (round 1) and to determine the importance of these issues (rounds 2 and 3) was conducted among nurses (n = 84) and physic...

At St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, implementation of the Relationship-Based Care (RBC) model of care delivery and enculturation of the philosophy of care embodied in Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring (Watson, 2007) improved patient outcomes and supported quality nursing care across the continuum of care in our organization. The ability of staff nurses to create ...

INTRODUCTION Transition of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to a new physical plant incurs many challenges. These are amplified when the culture of care is changing from traditional cohort-based care to the single-family room model. Altered healthcare delivery systems can be tested in situ with TESTPILOT: Transportable Enhanced Simulation Technologies for Pre-Implementation Limited Operati...

A neonatal intensive care unit outbreak was caused by a strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus previously found in the community (ST45-MRSA-IV). Fifteen infected neonates were identified, 2 of whom died. This outbreak illustrates how a rare community pathogen can rapidly spread through nosocomial transmission.

OBJECTIVE To calculate and compare costs of neonatal intensive care by micro-costing and gross-costing methods. METHODS The costs of resources of a tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit were estimated by the two methods to arrive at specific costs per diagnosis related categories for 33 neonates followed-up prospectively. RESULTS Gross-costing as compared to micro-costing resulted in h...

A cohort of very low birthweight infants (less than 1500 g) born in 1979-81 from a geographically defined area was followed up, and a costing of the initial admission to the neonatal intensive care unit was made. A four point scale for the severity of disability was used and estimation of the costs of education and full time residential care was made and discounted at 5% over the appropriate pe...