Measuring quality of care in moderate and late preterm infants.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine quality measures for moderate and late preterm (MLP) infants.Study DesignBy prospectively analyzing Vermont Oxford Network’s all NICU admissions database, we adapted Baby-MONITOR, a composite quality measure for extremely/very preterm infants, for MLP infants. We examined correlations between the adapted MLP quality measure (MLP-QM) in MLP infants and Baby-MONITOR in extremely and very preterm infants.ResultWe studied 376,219 MLP (30–36 weeks GA) and 57,595 extremely/very preterm (25–29 weeks GA) infants from 465 U.S. hospitals born from 2016 to 2020. MLP-QM summary scores in MLP infants had weak correlation with Baby-MONITOR scores in extremely and very preterm infants (r=0.47). There was weak correlation among survival (r=0.19), no pneumothorax (r=0.35), and no infection after 3 days (r=0.45), but strong correlation among human milk at discharge (r=0.79) and no hypothermia (r=0.76).ConclusionModest correlation among hospital care measures in two preterm populations suggests need for MLP-specific care measures.