The impact of a quality improvement project to reduce admission hypothermia on mortality and morbidity in very low birth weight infants

This prospective observational study was aimed to analyze the impact of a quality improvement project to reduce admission hypothermia on composite outcome of neonatal mortality and major morbidities. Infants with birth weight between 500 and 1499 g and gestation ≥ 25 weeks without major congenital malformations delivered between January 2018 and January 2020 who were admitted directly from delivery room to NICU were included in the study. Study period was divided in three phases including pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention phase. There were a total of 368 VLBW infants included in the study. Mean admission temperature of neonates was 35.3 ± 0.6 °C, 36.0 ± 0.8 °C, and 36.4 ± 0.4 °C during pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention phase, respectively. Absolute incidence of composite outcome was 31%, 20%, and 13.2% during pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention phase, respectively. Risk of adverse composite outcome was significantly lower in post-intervention period as compared to pre-intervention period (aRR 0.68, 95% CI 0.49–0.92). Nosocomial sepsis and need for invasive ventilation was also significantly less in post-intervention period as compared to pre-intervention period. Conclusion: Implementation of thermoregulatory interventions best suited to local settings help in significant reduction of neonatal hypothermia, which in turn can help to improve neonatal outcomes.What is known:• Admission hypothermia is associated with adverse neonatal outcomes.• Implementation of quality improvement projects help reducing hypothermia incidence.What is new:• Implementation of quality improvement project to reduce admission hypothermia resulted in reduction in incidence of adverse composite neonatal outcome.• Also implementation of quality improvement project led to reduction in incidence of nosocomial sepsis and need of invasive ventilation.