Report of the New England Regional Infant Cardiac Program.: 375-461 (abstract and commentary)

The New England Regional Infant Cardiac Program (NERICP) is a voluntary association of all hospitals in the New England states which offer definitive care for infants with heart disease. With the purpose of improving infant cardiac care, the program began in 1968 and continues to the present. Specif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pediatrics (Evanston) 1998-07, Vol.102 (1), p.S258
Main Authors: Fyler, Donald C, Talner, Norman S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Congenital heart defects
Congenital heart disease in children
Diagnosis
Diseases
Infants
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Summary:The New England Regional Infant Cardiac Program (NERICP) is a voluntary association of all hospitals in the New England states which offer definitive care for infants with heart disease. With the purpose of improving infant cardiac care, the program began in 1968 and continues to the present. Specific activities include professional education to improve case finding and earlier referral; identification and subsidy of appropriate transportation facilities; improved communication with participating hospitals; subsidy of follow-up where needed; provision for room and board for indigent parents when their baby has been moved some distance from home; and continuing nursery nurse education in the recognition of infants with heart disease. All participating hospitals agree to tabulation of their entire experience with infants with heart disease (3626 infants in 9 years). Case histories of surviving infants have been updated systematically. The period of July 1968 to June 1974 was selected for this detailed analysis because data from this period form the basis of an ongoing long-term follow-up study and have been reverified several times. This analysis is continued to the first year of life. More recent data, July 1974 to June 1977, are discussed separately and italicized numerical data from 1974 to 1977 have been added to tables where the results may be of interest. In the early years, case finding rose by 20% and has continued to increase gradually. By 1976, there were 2.4 NERICP infants per 1000 live births identifiable in the New England states. Surveys of state vital statistics showed a 50% decrease in infants who died with heart disease who did not reach a participating hospital. Neonates are admitted to participating hospitals earlier; admissions of infants less than 2 days old increased from 20% to 34% in 1977. Of infants admitted in 1977, more than 50% were in the first week of life.
ISSN:0031-4005