Facilitating safe transition to home for preterm infants - a retrospective observational study

Background Preterm infants (i.e., those born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy) often require additional care and are admitted to neonatal units. Readiness for discharge home typically requires a level of physiological maturity such that an infant is: 1) able to breathe spontaneously without additional support; 2) able to maintain their own body temperature; 3) able to take all their nutritional requirements orally; 4) weighs ≥1700 grams and consistently gaining weight. Staying in hospital longer than necessary can be detrimental to infants, stressful for families, and costly to the NHS. Reducing length of stay by just one day would be meaningful to parents and could save the NHS almost £25 million per year. Currently little is known about whether, how long and why preterm infants stay in hospital beyond the point at which they are physiologically ready for discharge. Aims and Objectives To identify the age and postmenstrual age when preterm infants reach each of the physiological barriers to discharge. To identify which physiological discharge barrier requires preterm infants to remain in hospital the longest. To quantify the difference between the time preterm infants become physiologically ready for discharge and their actual discharge home and describe factors associated with extended stays. Methods Data from the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD) will be retrieved for all infants born at