CNN Frequently Asked Questions
Note: If any uncertainty, please consult with your local Primary Investigator
If a patient is admitted to your NICU from a community hospital and then discharged back to the community hospital within a couple hours. There is no feeding or NPO status ordered. Is this patient captured on CNN and what would you capture on the patient chart for feeding?
Any patient who is admitted to your NICU and transferred to a community hospital is eligible to be captured in CNN, no matter how short the time frame for their admission. If the patient was not fed during their admission and there was no order for NPO, then you would not capture any feed or NPO on the patient chart screen, but maybe make a note in the comments box, on admission screen, indicating “No feed given” and record the date(s). This will be valuable information should you ever need to go back to review the chart.
If a patient has had serial head ultrasounds, none indicating any hemorrhage, but concern about the size of the ventricles and an infarct in the white matter, how would this be captured?
If there is concern about the size of the ventricles or if infarcts are visible, then this is not normal. Ventricular dilatation should be captured and any measurements that may have been taken. If no description is given then you can capture the descriptor as unknown. Infarcts in the white matter can be captured under Intraparenchymal Lesion or under Other brain lesion and transcribe findings.
If a patient in your NICU is participating in a blinded research study about treatment for their PDA where they either get ibuprofen and acetaminophen OR ibuprofen and placebo, how do you capture their treatment on the diagnosis/procedure screen?
In this situation you know the patient is being treated and you know they are being treated with ibuprofen regardless of which combination they receive, therefore ibuprofen would definitely be captured. Since you are unsure whether the patient is getting acetaminophen or placebo for the remainder of the treatment, you would make a note in the comments box “PDA study drug”, to make it known.
If a patient in your NICU had a non-operative reduction of an omphalocele with analgesia only and no anesthesia, how do you capture this on diagnosis/procedure screen?
In this case, it is a non-operative procedure, but it does indicate the use of analgesia and because of this it is captured under operations/procedures, Others.
If a patient was admitted to your NICU where mom had an amniocenteses and laser ablation of one twin to treat twin to twin transfusion syndrome, how would you capture antenatal intervention and is it specific to the one twin or the pregnancy as a whole?
If there is clear indication that the amniocentesis was completed on a specific twin then that is who you capture it for on the mother/obstetric screen. As for the laser ablation treatment, this should be captured on both twins as both were effected and it is captured on the pregnancy as a whole.
If a patient in your NICU has a positive blood culture that is commonly recognized as a skin contaminant, is this captured on the culture/transfusion screen as a positive blood culture?
A common skin contaminant can still be captured as a positive culture, but it has to meet the three criteria listed in the CNN manual 1. Blood obtained from peripheral or central line, 2. Signs of generalized infection and 3. Appropriate antibiotic therapy for at least 5 days as per physician.
If a premature patient was admitted to your NICU and was started on hydrocortisone shortly after birth, how is this captured if the patient is too new to be treated for BPD?
Anytime a premature patient is started on a steroid prophylactically within the first 48hrs of life you would capture the steroid indication as prophylaxis for BPD on the medications screen, under post-natal steroids
A mother was admitted for an elective c-section and was given a dose of intravenous antibiotics at induction. Is this captured as systemic antibiotics given within 24hrs before birth?
Since this was an elective c-section, the antibiotic is considered as prophylactic as it was given peri-operatively at the time of the c-section, and is therefore excluded from systemic antibiotics given within 24hrs before birth.
Why will my abstraction data for a delivery room death not validate and is this correct?
Yes, it is correct when a delivery room death does not validate. Only the first three screens will open for a delivery room death and there is not enough information for CNN to validate.