This measure includes Very Low BirthWeight (under 3 pounds 5 ounces or extremely premature) infants in the neonatal period between 0 and 28 days old. Morbidity refers to certain important complications of prematurity which can have an adverse effect on the long term neurodevelopmental outcome of VLBW survivors.

Although many complications are not preventable, some are. This measure should be considered along with the “VLBW survival” measure in order to evaluate the percentage of VLBW babies that survived both with and without known morbidity.

About this measure

This measure tracks the percentage of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies with very low birth weight who survived without known morbidity.

We track this measure through our participation in the Vermont Oxford Network (VON), a voluntary non-profit organization of over 700 neonatal intensive care units. VON is a collaboration dedicated to improving the quality and safety of the care delivered in neonatal intensive care units.

Note: In this measure, a higher number is better.