"Increased Survival Rate of 'Ireundungi'... 'Improvement in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Medical Quality'"

Survival Rate More Than Doubled for Birth Weight Under 500g

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] As the quality level of neonatal intensive care units has improved, the survival rate of 'early babies,' who are low birth weight and premature newborns, has increased.

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) announced the results of an analysis on neonatal survival rates on the 11th in celebration of "World Population Day." The results were based on a comparative analysis of the first and second neonatal intensive care unit adequacy evaluations. The first evaluation was conducted in the second half of 2018, and the second from October 2020 to March of last year.

According to the analysis, during the second period, the survival rate of newborns weighing less than 1.5 kg at birth was 87.1%, which was 4 percentage points higher than the first period. The survival rate of newborns weighing less than 500g at birth more than doubled from 15.8% in the first period to 36.5% in the second.

The survival rates by gestational age also showed improvement in the second period compared to the first. In the first evaluation, the survival rate of newborns with a gestational age under 37 weeks was 97%, which improved to 97.8% in the second. For those under 28 weeks gestation, the survival rate rose by 8.5 percentage points from 60.6% in the first period to 69.1% in the second.

HIRA analyzed that the background for these results is likely the "improvement in the quality of neonatal intensive care unit medical services."

Firstly, the number of dedicated specialists in neonatal intensive care units increased by 65 from the first to the second evaluation, reaching 228. Among these dedicated specialists, 155 were recognized as neonatal subspecialists by the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, an increase of 27 from the first evaluation.

The number of medical institutions equipped with specialists necessary for neonatal intensive care surgeries or diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases also increased. Institutions with pediatric surgery specialists and pediatric cardiology specialists increased by 5 and 7 respectively from the first to the second evaluation, totaling 31 and 54 institutions.

Additionally, the completion rate of neonatal resuscitation training was high. According to HIRA evaluation standards, medical staff must receive neonatal resuscitation training once every two years, and the completion rate in the second evaluation was 99.4%, indicating that most doctors and nurses completed this training.

Ha Sang-mi, chairperson of the neonatal intensive care unit adequacy evaluation subcommittee, explained, "This is the result of medical institutions increasing specialized personnel to care for critically ill newborns and completing specialized training for the resuscitation of vulnerable newborns, striving to create a safe treatment environment." She added, "Through the adequacy evaluation, we were able to confirm that the level of care in neonatal intensive care units is improving."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.