Initial data show PEACH helped improve kangaroo care at Mott
by Michael J. Happy / PEACH Web Project Manager
Kangaroo care (KC) is described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as infants being held by a caregiver with skin-to-skin contact. Research shows that KC is vital to ensuring optimal immediate and long-term cognitive, social and behavioral outcomes for children born preterm or with very low birth weight.
A recent PEACH study found that babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital received less than an hour a day of KC, substantially less time than recommended by WHO. Worse yet, there was a wide gap between KC of White babies and Black and non-White babies.
Rachael Pace, a senior clinical information analyst in the Neonatology Division at Mott, is the project lead on the study along with Paris Ekeke, M.D., a neonatologist. Pace said it's important to follow the PEACH approach of finding systems-level approaches to eliminating identified inequities instead of pointing fingers.
"Finding a racial inequity in our data was disappointing and uncomfortable, especially being a witness to the meaningful work our doctors, nurses and staff deliver every day," Pace said. "With the help of PEACH, it was clear that the inequity was not a result of a single person or discipline. A systems approach to closing the racial inequity gap would be the most sensible for successful change. Rarely, if at all, will there be that one thing that will fix a complex problem."
This project is one of four PEACH projects in the quality improvement stage, and some early work appears to have made a significant difference: Preliminary data show that KC for White and Black babies is nearly identical now, and each group exceeds 60 minutes a day. Although more analysis of the data is necessary -- a new KC dashboard is due for launch (April or sooner) and will be used as a tool to track progress of the work for the entire NICU -- Pace points to the successful consensus and support of unit and hospital leadership on the need for change as crucial to this work.