Quality Indicators but Not Admission Volumes of Neonatal Intensive Care Units Are Effective in Reducing Mortality Rates of Preterm Infants

AIM: To investigate how two different strategies to form larger neonatal intensive care units (NICU) impact neonatal mortality rates. METHODS: Cross-sectional study modeling admission volumes and mortality rates of 177,086 VLBW infants aggregated into 862 NICUs. Cumulative 3-year data was abstracted from Vermont Oxford Network. The model simulated a reduction in number of NICUs by stepwise exclusion using either admission volume (VOL) or …