Empowerment programme for parents of extremely premature infants significantly reduced length of stay and readmission rates.
OBJECTIVE
Extremely premature infants experience long hospitalisation and high readmission rates within 30 days of discharge. This quality control investigation retrospectively explored the impact of the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE©) programme on these rates in an all referral, Level-IV small baby intensive care unit setting.


METHODS
The parents of 303 extremely premature infants participated in the study. Of those, 135 were admitted before the implementation of COPE© and served as baseline historical controls, and the remaining 168 neonates received the intervention. Length of stay and readmission rates were analysed using parametric and nonparametric tests. Additional analyses were used to compare the two groups in terms of gestational age, birthweight and other acuity measures.


RESULTS
Neonates who received COPE© required significantly reduced lengths of stay than the control neonates (COPE© 127.1 ± 55.8 days vs. control 139.6 ± 61.9 days, p < 0.05) and significantly lower readmission rates (COPE© 23.9% vs. control 13.2%, p = 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The COPE© programme promoted active parental engagement in the unit and significantly reduced hospital stays and readmission rates. Future interventions should identify the specific components of the programme that support the parents of extremely premature infants during the various phases of hospitalisation.
Center for Perinatal Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
J
J
Gonya
E
E
Martin
R
R
McClead
L
L
Nelin
E
E
Shepherd
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D062071:Infant, Extremely Premature; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies
Extreme prematurity; Extremely low birthweight; Intensive care; Neonatal