Very Low Birth Weight Infants in the Republic of Ireland
The National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC) in collaboration with NICORE ROI (Neonatal Intensive Care Outcomes Research and Evaluation) and in conjunction with the Vermont Oxford Network (VON).
2014
The purpose of the audit is to improve the quality and safety of care for very low birth weight babies in Ireland.
Scope: Any infant born with a weight from 401 and 1500 grams OR whose gestational age is between 22 weeks 0 days and 29 weeks 6 days (inclusive) who is admitted to or dies in any location in any neonatal centre in ROI within 28 days of birth.
National coverage: 19 neonatal centres and two tertiary paediatric children’s hospitals.
Data collection commenced in 2014 and is ongoing.
Hospitals submit their data to the Vermont Oxford Network. The VON returns the data on the infants born in the Republic of Ireland to NPEC and this centre subsequently analyses it and publishes an annual report. General data from all participant VON centres (the network data) is also available to the NPEC. The NPEC holds these data acting as a national repository for the yearly national data.
Maternity care staff, neonatal staff, unit co-ordinators, hospital senior management, hospital risk management, policy developers in the HSE, DOH staff, service users.
Inclusion criteria: infants born alive between 401 and 1500g or whose gestational age is between 22 weeks 0 days and 29 weeks 6 days.
Infant Characteristics, Prenatal care, neonatal care, mortality and survival, infant morbidities and outcomes.
https://vtoxford.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405064008467-2022-Manual-of-Operations-Part-2-Release-26-1-PDF-
No
Ethnic group, Gender
Through the VON online data submission platform (eNICQ) or in exceptional circumstances, by submission of paper forms to the NPEC.
Data is collected on an annual basis.
Not in use.
In 2019, similar to previous years, there were 505 infants included.
Annual reports published 12-18 months within end of data collection year.
NPEC have a data access policy. Applicants must complete a data request form which is reviewed by a data access committee.
https://www.ucc.ie/en/npec/dataaccesscommittee/dataaccesscommittee/
No.
Audit coordinators and collaborators in each participating unit are responsible for submitting data on all eligible cases from their centre. This is done on a voluntary basis.
Ireland is one of many few countries with full national representation in the VON audit.
The NPEC, supports the national participation of Ireland in this VON audit by financing the annual membership fee on behalf of all 21 centres, providing administrative support and managing, analysing and publishing the annual reports.