OBJECTIVES Recent evidence suggests higher prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in NICU graduates. This aim of this study was to identify retrospectively early behaviors found more frequently in NICU infants who went on to develop ASD. METHODS Twenty-eight NICU graduates who later received a diagnosis of ASD were compared with 2169 other NICU graduates recruited from 1994 to 2005. The...

Because geographic variation in medical care utilization is jointly determined by both supply and demand, it is difficult to empirically estimate whether capacity itself has a causal impact on utilization in health care. In this paper, I exploit short-term variation in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) capacity that is unlikely to be correlated with unobserved demand determinants. I find that...

The clinical management of premature and ill term babies is challenged by the necessity of several inter and intra organizational patient journeys. Premature and ill-term babies born in regional Australia and Canada must be moved to another hospital with Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) facilities. NICU babies requiring surgery must be moved to a Level IV NICU for surgery. Current clinical m...

Of the many challenges facing professionals who practice in neonatal intensive care in the United States, the question of what type of facility is optimal has been debated for more than a decade. We have attempted to explore this question at Sanford Children’s Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD. The purpose of this article is to briefly summarize our work and other significant research findings regard...

The incidence and consequences of medication errors in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) demonstrate the importance of established safety procedures and guidelines for the prescribing, dispensing, and administration of medications. As the professional voice of neonatal nurses, the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) recommends that appropriate measures and education be made ava...

The purpose of this special issue of Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics is to present an evidence-based system to guide the physical therapy management of patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Two systematic guides to patient management will be presented. The first is a care path intended primarily for use by physical therapists, and the second is a care path for famil...

Infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) are particularly susceptible to opportunistic infection. Infected infants have high mortality rates, and survivors often suffer life-long neurological disorders. The causes of many NICU infections go undiagnosed, and there is debate as to the importance of inanimate hospital environments (IHEs) in the spread of infections. We used culture-indepen...

The general purpose of this investigation was to identify parent and nursing staff expectations regarding the nurse's role in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). A descriptive study was carried out using a qualitative approach and interviews were conducted at a NICU in the interior of the State of São Paulo. Results showed new expectations on the part of parents and professionals regarding th...

BACKGROUND The growing burden of neonatal mortality associated with hospital-acquired neonatal sepsis in the developing world creates an urgent need for cost-effective infection-control measures in resource-limited settings. METHODS Using a before-and-after comparison design, we measured how rates of staff hand-hygiene compliance, colonization with drug-resistant pathogens (defined as ceftazi...