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When I worked in a newborn nursery unit, any discharged newborns who needed to be readmitted to the hospital for treatment were admitted to the pediatrics unit. I also worked Pediatrics before, and cared for newborns who needed longer stays in the hospital for jaundice mostly...and were placed on our pedi unit with their moms being allowed to stay the entire time with them if they wanted to. Most did.
When I worked in a regional hospital we occasionally needed to readmit a baby requiring ICU treatment to the NICU but only if it was under 3 months old. Very ,very rarely did we need to do that (about twice in ten years) and sepcial precautions were taken. It was simply that the equipment we had in our mostly adult ICU just was too big. We kept complaining that babies were too small and the NICU nurses were standing around saying "what a whopper!!!! - It's huge!!!!" Usually though this stay was very transient and the baby was medivacced soon after.
Occasionally, we get a back transfer from our tertiary referral centre. It is usually the feeder-grower type baby who lives in our community and mom/dad has transportation issues to their NICU which is 20 miles away. Usually baby just needs to mature a little, but does not have complex needs and is free of infection.
Babytalk
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I am looking for information on readmission of infants to the newborn nursery. Does anyone out there have a policy? If you do readmit to the nursery, who do you admit? What is the age cut-off? What guidelines to you use? How do you staff? You can contact me by e-mail. [email protected]. THanks :)