Quality improvement review of the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Early Intervention Programme

This follows the recent incident in which screeners were identified as not following protocol.

The review identified a total of 21 recommendations, some aiming to improve DHB service provision and some strengthening leadership and surveillance of the programme by the NSU. They are:

• one recommendation on the screening protocol
• four recommendations for individual screener monitoring
• seven recommendations for the screener role
• three recommendations for the coordinator role
• one recommendation for audiology
• five recommendations for programme management.

There are a number of initiatives the NSU and DHBs have been working on to progress the recommendations. They include:

• working together on education and training of hearing screening staff and developing tools for screener assessment 
• developing a financial template for DHBs to provide detailed reporting every quarter from 1 July 2013
• reviewing the data monitoring protocols 
• regular teleconferences, videoconferences and communications between the NSU and DHB staff, including coordinators and trainers
• workshops for screeners and audiologists held at the recent Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Conference in Auckland.

Further work is also planned to review the screening test protocol and perform an assessment of residual risk. 

The implementation of the recommendations is overseen by the UNHSEIP Advisory Group.

The review report is available on the Ministry of Health’s website.