A study of early neonatal morbidity profile in a district teaching hospital, Mysore, India

Introduction: Early neonates are more prone towards infections and deaths. As a result we are interested in finding out the health behavior of inborn early neonates in a district hospital of Mysore. Materials and Methods: A total of 24,578 live births were monitored for their morbidity status from September 2011 to June 2013. The number of morbidity causes was detected for every 100 early neonates, monthly wise. The non-conformities behavior was observed through Poisson u-chart with variable control limits. 20% vital few contributors that contributes to variations in morbidity and mortality aspects of early neonates were detected through checklists and super imposed Pareto charts. Results: The number of causes per inspection unit for sample number 9 is out of control. Values corresponding to samples 1 and 2 are within the warning region. It appears that hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)/moderate-severe birth asphyxia is the major contributing factor for both morbidity and mortality based on the occurrences. However, in the process of detecting the impact of morbidity factor on their corresponding mortality, it is found that the major nonconformity factor is major congenital malformation (MCM) and not HIE/Moderate-severe birth asphyxia as MCM has 0.217 chance of causing mortality, whereas HIE has 0.19 chance standing at the fourth position. Conclusion: We conclude that the hospital management needs to develop appropriate preventive and management strategies for the major causes viz., MCM, sepsis/pneumonia/meningitis and respiratory distress syndrome.