Limiting Oxygen Therapy in the Neonatal ICU: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Background: Oxygen therapy in the premature neonatal population is associated with negative outcomes and neonatal intensive care units (NICU) use continuous pulse oximetry to limit its use in these vulnerable subjects. The NICU at a large university hospital has a 4-pronged Target Oxygen Protocol 1) Set correct SpO2 alarm limits 2) Use Nellcor OxiMax N-600x pulse oximeter (Covidien, Mansfield, Massachusetts) to display histogram of percent time in each SpO2 quintile per 24h period 3) Display correct postmenstrual age oxygen target saturation card 4) Set oxygen blender FIO2