Does More Intensive Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Follow-Up Service Result in Better Outcomes? A Cost-Effective Analysis |
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| Authors: | Linda D Goetze Nancy Immel Colette M Escobar Yvonne Gillette Daniel Coury Nancy Hansen |
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| Institution: |
a Early Intervention Research Institute, Utah State University.
b University of Akron.
c Children's Hospital, Columbus. |
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| Abstract: | Little is known about the relative cost-effectiveness of the many different types of early intervention services provided to medically fragile infants and their families. This study compared two intensities of services for such infants and their families: (a) a coordinated and comprehensive system of early intervention services initiated prior to discharge from the NICU and designed to transition infants to community-based services were compared with the effects of services (high intensity); and (b) a more traditional hospital follow-up consisting of medical checkups and referrals following discharge (low intensity). High-intensity services resulted in five times more community-based early intervention hours for families and infants when compared with low-intensity services. Annual costs of the high-intensity group were approximately triple the costs of the low-intensity group ($10,814 versus $3,032 per child per year), but there were only a few statistically significant differences on measures of child and family functioning between the groups at 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24months' corrected age. Implications of these findings for research and practice are given. |
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