Small Babies Grow Stronger with Improved Nutrition Monitoring
January 24, 2022
Using an automated calculation in the EHR to track the growth of very low birthweight infants, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center helped these babies gain weight faster.
To help identify and treat VLBW infants, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Los Angeles, California, uses an algorithm within Epic to calculate a score that shows weight change from birth in an easily accessible time series visualization. The implementation of this display has contributed to improved growth for VLBW infants. The organization also attributes time savings to the automated score. Because providers no longer need to go to an external site to calculate the score, they save one minute per day per patient; with an average of 30 eligible patients at a time, that’s 30 minutes daily, or 3.5 hours each week.
How They Did It:
Tracked change in z-scores to objectively identify VLBW infants at risk of malnutrition
Automated weight z-score calculations within Epic
Graphically displayed and highlighted infants at risk for easy provider recognition