Extreme preterm birth in the right place: a quality improvement project

Extreme preterm birth is a major precursor to mortality and disability. Survival is improved in babies born in specialist centres but for multiple reasons this frequently does not occur. In the Thames Valley region of the UK in 2012-2014, covering 27 000 births per annum, about 50% of extremely premature babies were born in a specialist centre. Audit showed a number of potential areas for improvement. We used regional place of birth data and compared the place of birth of extremely premature babies for 2 years before our intervention and for 4 years (2014-2018) after we started. We aimed to improve the proportion of neonates born in a specialist centre with three interventions: increasing awareness and education across the region, by improving and simplifying the referral pathway to the local specialised centre, and by developing region-wide guidelines on the principal precursors to preterm birth: preterm labour and expedited delivery for fetal growth restriction. There were 147 eligible neonates born within the network in the 2 years before the intervention and 80 (54.4%) were inborn in a specialised centre. In the 4 years of and following the intervention, there were 334 neonates of whom 255 were inborn (76.3%) (relative risk of non-transfer 0.50 (95% CI 0.39 to 0.65), p<0.001). Rates showed a sustained improvement. The proportion of extremely premature babies born in specialist centres can be significantly improved by a region-wide quality improvement programme. The interventions and lessons could be used for other areas and specialties.