Preemie clinic atlas for very premature preemies

New web portal helps preemie parents in hospital search

03/01/2014

In Germany, around 9,000 children weighing less than 1,500 grams are born each year. A new internet portal will help parents and gynecologists to find a suitable clinic for premature babies.

Around 9,000 preemies weighing less than 1,500 grams
Every year around 9,000 children weighing less than 1,500 grams are born in Germany. Almost every tenth newborn is a premature baby. The care of particularly preterm infants, who often find space in one palm, needs a lot of experience. So far, parents and gynecologists have had little opportunity to understand which facilities are actually experienced in treating very light babies. But with a new website that should change now. The internet portal www.perinatalzentren.org has recently gone online.

Pawls voluntarily disclose their data
In this Germany atlas, there are now 93 pawls that voluntarily disclose how many children they treat each year, whose birth weight is less than 1,500 grams. There are nearly 200 of these perinatal centers nationwide that can supply such babies. On the new web portal, parents can enter the postal code of their place of residence in a search mask and select the area in which they search for a Perinatal center. You can compare the latches according to criteria such as number of cases, treatment routine and survival rates.

Stricter specifications decided
„The website should provide a reliable decision-making aid“, says Joachim Szecsenyi, Managing Director of the Göttingen AQUA Institute, which verifies the clinic information and implements the project on behalf of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). Already in July of last year, the G-BA had adopted stricter specifications for the care of premature babies. Representatives of health insurances, doctors, clinics and patients sit in this body. The publication of the data on the Internet portal should become mandatory for all German clinics in a second step, as the G-BA and the AQUA Institute announced.

Only half of the clinics have disclosed their data
According to the AQUA Institute, only about half of all clinics have so far disclosed their data. Szecsenyi said: „By voluntarily publishing their data on the Internet, hospitals show a high degree of transparency and willingness to continuously optimize their treatment quality.“ In December 2012, the Federal Social Court had conceded a G-BA scheme, according to which only large specialist hospitals are allowed to treat preemies with a birth weight of up to 1,250 grams. The Federal Committee wanted to increase the minimum threshold from 14 to 30 pre-treatment treatments per year, but the court said that there is no scientific evidence that the mortality rates of premature babies fall linearly with increasing number of cases. A clinic earns more than 100,000 euros with the care of an extremely light premature baby.

Do not just trust the internet
The chairman of the Federal Association „The premature baby“, Hans-Jürgen Wirthl, believes that a reduction of almost 200 perinatal centers is absolutely necessary for quality improvement. Especially for very small centers, it is difficult to ensure optimal care. In general, the chances of survival of the very small preemies in recent decades have risen steadily and so survive on 24 completed weeks of pregnancy today about 70 to 75 percent. Later, however, many of them are struggling with developmental delays, chronic respiratory diseases or motor disorders. The Director of the Children's Hospital of the University Hospital Marburg, Rolf Maier, said that the new Internet offer more transparency is created, but limited that these statistics are not so easy for laymen to interpret. Therefore, parents should not just trust the internet.

Different causes for premature birth
Causes of extreme preterm birth may include malformations of the child, disorders of the placenta and the uterus, but also a damaging way of life of the mother. Researchers who participated in a United Nations (UN) premature birth report a few years ago found that the global rate of premature delivery was different. In the developed world, for example, the growing prevalence of ill health (obesity, high blood pressure), tobacco and alcohol use, and late motherhood are increasing the number of premature births, while in developing countries there are shortcomings in hygiene, lack of protection against infections, and low levels of medical care General knowledge and poor medical care cause the rise of premature births. (Ad)

Picture credits: N. Schmitz