Mortality in Low Birth Weight Infants According to Level of Neonatal Care at Hospital of Birth

OBJECTIVE: In 1976, the Committee on Perinatal Health recommended that hospitals with no neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or intermediate NICUs transfer high-risk mothers and infants that weigh

METHODS: Birth certificates of 16 732 singleton infants who had a BW of

RESULTS: Compared with birth in a hospital with a regional NICU, risk-adjusted mortality of infants with BW of or =15) community NICU was not statistically different compared with those with a regional NICU (OR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.87-1.43). Except for large community NICUs, all of these ORs are larger when the data are restricted to infants with BW of

CONCLUSIONS: These results support the recommendation that hospitals with no NICU or intermediate NICUs transfer high-risk mothers with estimated fetal weight of