The Parkland Memorial Hospital experience in ensuring compliance with Universal Newborn Hearing Screening follow-up.

Objective Reduce false-positive results and loss to follow-up through systematic modifications in Universal Newborn Hearing Screening at a large public hospital. Study design During a pilot program, neonates who failed technician-performed automated auditory brain stem response were scheduled for diagnostic evaluation. In year 1, audiologists rescreened neonates who failed, and those who did not pass were screened as outpatients. For years 2 through 4, neonates who failed were rescreened by technicians before inpatient audiology rescreening. Results For the pilot, 3759 neonates were screened; 1% (n = 43) failed and 44% (n = 19) were lost to follow-up. In year 1, 15,297 neonates were screened and 2% (n = 365) failed; audiology rescreening reduced this to Conclusions Successful Universal Newborn Hearing Screening with reduced false-positive results and loss to follow-up can be accomplished with a planned schedule of inpatient rescreens and outpatient rescreening at the birthing facility.