Reports from the Field: JCAHO - Healthy newborns at risk
Reports from the Field
JCAHO: Healthy newborns at risk
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, issued an alert that a devastating but preventable condition can threaten healthy newborns. The alert cautions hospitals that while jaundice is common and usually not life-threatening in newborns, severe cases of jaundice put babies at risk for kernicterus, or brain damage caused by dangerous levels of bilirubin in the bloodstream. Medical experts recently have seen a rise in this condition. Babies who survive suffer from a severe form of cerebral palsy, hearing loss, upward gaze paralysis, and teeth malformations.
JCAHO’s Sentinel Event Alert newsletter warns that when high levels of lirubin go unrecognized, babies suffer the debilitating and potentially fatal consequences of kernicterus. The following factors put newborns at risk for hyperbilirubinemia:
- jaundice appearing in first 24 hours after birth;
- prematurity of three to five weeks;
- inadequate nutrition and hydration resulting from insufficient breast-feeding;
- bruising;
- ethnicity, in particular Asian-American and African-American babies, and babies of Mediterranean descent;
- siblings who experienced jaundice.
To protect newborns, JCAHO recommends that hospitals follow guidelines recently issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics in Elm Grove Village, IL, for identifying at-risk newborns, diagnosing kernicterus and treating the condition. Those include:
- Evaluate all cases of jaundice appearing in the first 24 hours.
- Create detailed treatment strategies for specific levels of bilirubin.
- Provide medical follow-up for newborns within 24 to 48 hours after discharge.
- Educate parents about jaundice and its potential risk.
- Provide proper equipment to detect and treat the condition.
For more information, visit the JCAHO web site at www.jcaho.org.
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