Inpatient Audiologic Services Facilitate Early Hearing Detection.

Area of Science:

• Neonatal care
• Audiology
• Pediatric health

Background:

• Infants requiring neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) intervention often face delays in congenital hearing loss diagnosis.
• These infants are at a higher risk for hearing impairments, necessitating timely screening and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate early hearing detection outcomes in infants with a history of NICU admission.
• To determine if in-NICU diagnostic audiology services accelerate diagnosis and intervention for hearing loss.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective chart review of 367 infants with NICU history undergoing diagnostic audiology testing (2018-2021).
• Data collected included NICU location, insurance type, and race/ethnicity to analyze time to diagnosis.
• Comparison of diagnostic timelines based on the level of in-NICU audiology care provided.

Main Results:

• 70% of NICU infants received a hearing diagnosis by 3 months corrected age.
• In-NICU audiology services did not significantly alter the corrected age at diagnosis.
• Loss to follow-up rates were lower in NICUs with inpatient audiology services (6.8%) compared to those without (10.0%).
• In-NICU testing occurred 5.7 weeks earlier than outpatient evaluations, expediting diagnosis.

Conclusions:

• Early hearing detection is achievable in the medically complex NICU population.
• Inpatient audiology diagnostic testing in the NICU setting can potentially reduce loss to follow-up.
• Implementing in-NICU audiology services may facilitate earlier hearing detection and intervention for at-risk infants.