As opioid use across the country has increased, so too has the number of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The concerning trend led the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock to develop and adopt of a new model of care for opioid-exposed newborns.
The Lebanon, N.H.-based hospital's model included moving the site of care for the opioid-exposed newborns from the neonatal intensive care unit to a rooming-in model in the pediatric ward. The hospital also increased family engagement in care and decreased the treatment of the infants with medication by modifying physician responses to withdrawal symptom scores.
With the help of the new model, CHaD recorded the following results:
1. Opioid-exposed newborns treated with medications decreased from 46 percent to 27 percent
2. Length of stay of those treated with medications fell from 17 days to 12 day
3. Average hospital costs for newborns requiring pharmacologic treatment decreased from $19,737 to $8,755 between the first and second year
4. Costs for all opioid-exposed newborns also decreased, from $11,000 during the study's baseline year to $5,300 during the second year
"I hope that other centers across the country will adopt our model of rooming-in care for opioid-exposed newborns," said study author Alison Holmes, MD. "Adoption of this model allows families to be full members of the care teams, and provides an improved experience of family-centered care while simultaneously decreasing inpatient bed utilization and costs to the system."
More articles on opioids:
Cigna sets goal to cut opioid use by 25 percent
Harvard med students teach themselves how to treat opioid addiction
GOP puts finishing touches on opioid legislative package