A quality improvement initiative to reduce the time to initial maternal visit in the neonatal intensive care unit

We aimed to reduce the time interval between an infant's admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and first maternal interaction.

We identified three key drivers: 1. Collaboration with Labor and Delivery, 2. Education of staff and parents, and 3. Improved documentation of maternal presence. We measured the time interval from NICU admission to the initial maternal presence. We followed length of stay as a balancing measure to assay whether use of remote televisitation impeded efficient parental teaching and delayed discharge.

We reduced the time interval from an average of 19.7 h in February 2020 to 12.3 h in June 2021. We expanded an already existing televisitation program as a surrogate to in-person interaction during COVID-19 pandemic. Televisitation did not affect in-person parental presence or LOS.

Our multidisciplinary efforts resulted in a significantly accelerated time to initial maternal presence and did not prolong LOS.