Sleeping Safe and Sound: A Multidisciplinary Hospital-wide Infant Safe Sleep Quality Improvement Initiative.

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Public Health
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) remains a concern, with hospital settings presenting unique challenges for safe sleep promotion.
• Adherence to safe sleep practices is critical for infant well-being but often difficult to achieve consistently across all hospital units.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess and improve adherence to safe sleep practices across all inpatient units at a large pediatric hospital.
• To identify barriers to safe sleep and evaluate the effectiveness of quality improvement interventions.

Main Methods:

• Employed quality improvement methodologies, including the formation of a multidisciplinary expert group.
• Developed and implemented hospital-wide safe sleep guidelines and targeted interventions.
• Conducted bedside audits to monitor progress and identify areas for improvement.

Main Results:

• Significant improvement in safe sleep practice adherence, increasing from 9% to 53% following interventions.
• Identification of objects within the crib as a primary barrier to maintaining a safe sleep environment.
• Observed lower adherence to safe sleep practices in infants with greater medical complexity (p = .027).

Conclusions:

• Quality improvement initiatives effectively enhanced adherence to infant safe sleep guidelines across multiple hospital units.
• Medically complex infants present ongoing challenges for safe sleep implementation.
• Further staff education and research into tailored safe sleep practices for complex infant populations are essential.