Early and consistent safe sleep practices in the neonatal intensive care unit: a sustained regional quality improvement initiative

Abstract

Objective: To increase compliance with standardized safe sleep recommendations for patients in a cohort of regional level III/IV neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in accordance with recently revised guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Study design: A regional quality improvement (QI) initiative led by a multidisciplinary task force standardized safe sleep criteria across participating NICU sites. Universal and unit-specific interventions were implemented via Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles with evaluation of compliance through routine crib audits, run chart completion, and Pareto chart analysis.

Results: Following QI implementation, compliance with safe sleep guidelines for eligible NICU infants improved from 34% to 90% from October 2019 through September 2022.

Conclusion: Compliance with early, consistent modeling of safe sleep practices nearly tripled in this cohort of regional NICUs. A standardized, timely approach to safe sleep transition demonstrated dramatic and sustained improvement in the practice and modeling of safe sleep behaviors in the NICU.