I thought this was very interesting... in case anyone is looking for a chart on how the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) grades their NICUs:
Thursday, June 5, 2008
NICU Levels
Posted by Jennifer at 1:00 PM
Labels: General Pregnancy
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2 comments:
Thanks for posting that! I was told way-back-when that Noah's birth hospital was a level 2 and the hospital he tranfered to was a level 3. I never understood how a level 2 NICU managed to keep 24 weekers for months at a time (he was one of 2, and they were both transfered out eventually, but only when surgery was required). It's clear from that chart that they didn't - our local hospital is a 3B and the hospital Noah was tranfered to for surgery was a 3D. Any clue how many of each level there are? It strikes me as really good luck that our small local hospital had a NICU able to handle 24 weekers.
I couldn't find any hard numbers on how many Level III there are but I did find it interesting that nine states have a classification for Level 4 - when in reality they are a Level IIIC or D. I find that terribly misleading of them (Duke and John Hopkins for example).
NICUs are 'cash cows' for hospitals so many of them are pouring money into that area to build up their services so they can start making more money off the growing preemie trend... not necessarily a bad thing, but it is interesting.
All the NICUs in my area, for instance, are Level IIIA or higher. I think it would be hard, at least on the east coast, to not have a Level III readily accessible to any given area. Central US, where services are very far spread out, may be harder to find though.
I'm still perplexed by Duke and John Hopkins calling themselves Level IV when the AAP has no designation for that (and they're the 'end all, be all' on NICU grading).
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