Health Services Research in care of very-low-birth-weight-infants in NICUs – The impact of human and organizational factors on performance

Premature birth is the major cause of perinatal acquired disabilities and mortality. The care of very premature infants with a birth weight less than 1,500g is shaped by several factors. Since February 2012 the HSR-NICU project in the field of health services research in care of very low birth weight infants is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project aims to analyze the question how and to what extent outcomes of premature births less than 1,500g will be influenced by human and organizational factors.
A pilot study with five german neonatal intensive care units showed that workload, staff attitudes and structural features are influencing the quality of premature care.

In the current multicenter study with 66 NICUs relationships between working conditions, staff and parent satisfaction, economic and medical factors, goals and organisational procedures are analysed in an interdisciplinary cooperation between medicine, ethics, business administration and sociology.

The methods for data collection are staff and parent questionnaires, medical outcome data as well as general information of participating centres as e.g. processes, costs, structures, capacity, case severity and occupancy.

Results of the interdisciplinary and innovative research project are expected to contribute to the organizational structuring of NICUs and to the design of care structures and processes in the field of Neonatology.

Project Board:
Prof. Dr. L. Kuntz

Project Team:
Prof. Dr. Holger Pfaff
Prof. Dr. med. Dipl.-Kfm. Rainer Riedel (Rheinische Fachhochschule Cologne (RFH))
Prof. Dr. med. Bernhard Roth
Prof. Dr. med. Christiane Woopen

Funding Institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration: 2012-2015

Further Information: www.hsr-nicu.de