|
|
News release: Colorado - Denver/BoulderJanuary 10, 2002 For more information, call: Hearing test saves newborns from significant delays Colorado program gains national recognition Denver, CO – Imagine a baby born into a silent world, unable to hear his mother's voice. Data suggest that 1 in 650 newborns has hearing loss. A study involving 148,000 babies in 60 Colorado hospitals shows that those babies with hearing loss can reliably be identified in the first few months of life, beginning with hearing screening tests for all newborns while they are still hospitalized. If no screening test is performed at birth and the hearing loss is undetected, it is often not diagnosed until the child is over age 2. This delay in diagnosis contributes to significant delays in a child's speech and social and emotional development. Kaiser Permanente pediatrician Albert Mehl, MD, led the study that highlighted the accuracy of newborn screening tests performed before the baby leaves the hospital. The state's largest birthing hospital, Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital, began newborn hearing screening in 1998. Details of the study were published in the electronic pages of February's Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study concluded that universal screening for congenital hearing loss is feasible in a large regional effort with legislatively mandated participation. Success of the program would depend on educational efforts for community professionals, commitment on the program planners, and data systems that more accurately track and recall infants who fail initial hospital-based screening. Costs of establishing the program are shown to be completely recoverable. Most importantly, the crucial window of intervention was shown to be much earlier than previously suspected, with delays in diagnosis of only 6 to 12 months associated with significant and ongoing delays in language development. To read the study in its entirety, go to www. pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full. Kaiser Permanente, a nonprofit organization and largest private health care provider in Colorado, cares for more than 400,000 members in the Denver/Boulder and Colorado Springs areas. In the Denver/Boulder area, care is provided by an integrated team of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, mental health counselors and physical therapists. In Colorado Springs, Kaiser Permanente cares for its members through an affiliated network of community-based physicians and other health care providers.
|
