Barzilai University Medical Center

40 Research Day 2020 Barzilai University Medical Center 23 PREVENTING ADMISSION HYPOTHERMIA IN PRETERM BABIES – A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT Segal Ilan, Abou Saoud Yacoub Mohammad, Zangen Shmuel The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Barzilai University Medical Center, Ashkelon, Israel. Faculty of Health Studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel Background Hypothermia (core Temperature < 36°C) at admission of preterm babies is associated with mortality and serious morbidities as intraventricular hemorrhage and sepsis. Since their increased body surface area to weight ratio, skin immaturity and poor vasomotor control, preterms are at greater risk for hypothermia after birth. Different methods are proven to prevent admission hypothermia but observations in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) suggested a high percentage of admission hypothermia. Hypothesis Undertaking a multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative could prevent most admission hypothermia events. Aim was to achieve a normothermia percentage of above 90% Methods A multidisciplinary team identified areas for improvement for example better control of delivery and operation room (OR) air temperature, use of warm linen and introduction of chemical warm mattress. The project instructions were discussed and reinforced during scheduled meeting with delivery room and NICU staff. We compared rates of admission hypothermia of 23-32 weeks gestational age (GA) preterm between the periods before and after the QI implementation. Results During study period (Jan 2013-Dec 2017) 326 preterm babies were born. No significant difference in their baseline characteristics. Admission hypothermia in the period after the QI project was 18.1% compared to 47.2% before (p<0.001). Hypothermia at the age of 1 hour was reduced too (before 20.2% vs. after 4.3%. p<0.001) (table). Process measure of OR temperature was significantly improved during the 2 years of intervention. Conclusions QI initiatives could improve both process and outcome measures. An improvement of admission temperature may improve important preterm morbidities