Family Presence Restrictions and Telemedicine Use in Neonatal Intensive Care Units during the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic.

Mio Ozawa,Haruyo Sakaki,Xianwei Meng

doi:10.3390/children8070590

Abstract

We aimed to describe parental presence policy and telemedicine use in Japanese neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) before and during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This cross-sectional study was performed through an online survey in 110 level III units from 19 November 2020 to 18 December 2020. Nurses’ evaluation of the current situation (during COVID-19) was compared with their retrospective pre-COVID-19 (December 2019) evaluation. Responses were received from 52 NICUs distributed across all regions in Japan. The median allowed parental presence time decreased from 12 h to 1 h, and 29 NICUs allowed entry of parents simultaneously during COVID-19. There was an increase in the number of units providing telemedicine through telephone and online visits during COVID-19 compared to that before COVID-19 (from 2% to 19%). The hybrid design NICUs, with 11–89% of beds in single-patient rooms, allowed a longer parental presence time in the NICUs than those with ≥90% of beds in multi-bed rooms. The number of units implementing kangaroo care decreased during COVID-19 compared to that before COVID-19. The need for telemedicine increased among Japanese NICUs to mitigate the adverse effect of parental restriction and limited physical contact due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Published: 12 July 2021The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to ravage the world
The single-family room neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) design was not used, and we examined the association between NICU design with NICU visiting screening and available parental presence hours
The study results showed that all the NICUs that responded to the pandemic-imposed restrictions on the 24-h presence of parents and family members, and most patients in the NICUs were screened for mobility, poor physical condition, and body temperature (Table 3)

Summary

Introduction

Published: 12 July 2021The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to ravage the world. Since the first reported case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Japan on 16 January 2020, 794,884 cases and 14,738 deaths have been reported as of 29 June 2021 [1]. In Japan, most inpatient medical facilities imposed restrictions on family members’ visits to admitted patients, as the government declared a temporary nationwide closure of all elementary and junior high schools on 2 March 2020, followed by a state of emergency declaration on April 7. Admission and discharge and delivery of the necessities required in the hospital. Restrictions of patient’s parents on admission may reduce face-to-face communication with NICU providers and the joint care for their children, leading to delays in preparing for discharge and prolonging hospital stays. It was reported that parents with restricted access to the NICU due to the novel COVID-19 outbreak experienced negative feelings, such as sadness and anger [2]. Measures of parental restrictions should be carefully considered by providing alternatives that will prevent the adverse effects of these restrictions

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion