Optimising neonatal bubble continuous positive airway pressure: A Somaliland quality initiative

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the standard of care for neonatal respiratory distress and improves survival when implemented in low-resource settings. Clinical audits at the Borama Regional Hospital (BRH) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) revealed multiple barriers to effective CPAP, including insufficient pressure, a lack of neonatal-sized nasal prongs, and patient interface challenges.

Improve respiratory distress by increasing effective CPAP delivery for neonates 30 days of age from 52% to 90% in 6 months.

Single-centre referral hospital in the Awdal region of Somaliland.

Quality improvement (QI) initiative with outcomes displayed using statistical process control (SPC) charts.

Eleven residents, three medical interns and seven NICU nurses completed the educational training. Forty-five patients were initiated on the locally designed bubble CPAP (bCPAP) device with a 47% (122/261) CPAP safety checklist completion rate for the three daily nursing shifts. We achieved our study aim by increasing the adherence rate to the 7-item bCPAP device set up from a baseline of 52% to 91%. The rate of infants weaned or discontinued from bCPAP for improved respiratory severity score (RSS) increased from 0% to 18% but did not demonstrate process change. There was no increase in adverse event rates (air leak, nasal columella breakdown and nasal irritation).

We demonstrated increased effective bCPAP delivery and decreased respiratory distress.Contribution: This study outlines low-cost, customisable QI strategies to address commonly encountered gaps for effective bCPAP delivery in low-resource settings without access to commercially available CPAP devices or speciality-trained providers.