Sick newborns often rely on a ventilator to supply oxygen, and are tethered by a plastic endotracheal tube (ETT). Often-times, this tube accidentally pops out. This represents the fourth most common complication experienced by newborns in NICUs. It can cause oxygen deficiency (hypoxia), high carbon dioxide levels in the blood, trauma to their airway, intraventricular hemorrhage, code events, and more. “Unplanned extubations” also have the potential to nearly double the time of a hospital stay and increase the cost of care by $36,000 per patient. Because of this, the Children’s National Health System’s NICU spearheaded a quality-improvement initiative to reduce the prevalence of unplanned extubations.
