Kaiser Permanente has published research in JAMA Pediatrics that showcases the development of a neonatal sepsis risk calculator that has safely reduced antibiotic use by nearly 50 percent in newborns.
"It's often unsettling for new parents to have their newborn's blood drawn or have their babies taken to the neonatal intensive care unit shortly after birth for intravenous antibiotics," Dr. Michael Kuzniewicz, the study's lead author and a practicing neonatologist and director of the Perinatal Research Unit at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, said in a statement. "We thought there must be a better way to decide which infants were at higher risk, and only evaluate and treat those infants."
The risk calculator allows the hospital to better target infants at high risk for bacterial infections. It does so without exposing low-risk babies to antibiotics.
"By dramatically reducing the use of antibiotics, the risk calculator allows mothers and babies to stay together in the days after birth," co-author Dr. Allen Fischer, director of neonatology for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, said. "Instead of admission to the neonatal intensive care unit for intravenous treatment, the babies remain with their mothers, which improves bonding and the initiation of breastfeeding in the first days of life."
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