Reduction of Need for Treatment and Length of Hospital Stay Following Institution of a Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Rooming-In Program in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

PurposeTo assess the impact of a rooming-in program for babies at risk of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) in one community hospital centre, in Belleville, Ontario. Design and methodsThis retrospective chart review was conducted at Belleville General Hospital. The hospital developed a rooming-in program for newborns at risk of NAS in July 2015. Charts on all infants born to mothers using opioids in the 24 months prior to and after the implementation of our program, who met the inclusion criteria, were examined. ResultsThe study consisted of 15 babies in the Special Care Nursery (SCN) group and 19 babies in the rooming-in group. Rooming-in is associated with a reduction in the need for treatment with morphine [rooming-in group (1/19, 5.3%), SCN group (14/15, 93.3%), p < 0.01], shorter length of stay in hospital [rooming-in group (days = 5), SCN group (days = 20), p < 0.01], improved exclusive breast and/or breast milk-feeding rates [rooming-in group (17/19,89.5%), SCN group (1/15,6.7%), p < 0.01] and lower total hospital cost [rooming-in group ($6458.00), SCN group ($17,851.00), p < 0.01]. ConclusionOur study demonstrates that rooming-in programs for babies born to mothers using opioids has benefits in terms of quality of care and health care resource utilization. Practical implicationsThese findings show that rooming-in can be successfully implemented in a community hospital.