Neonatal Service Quality Indicators: Standards relating to structures and processes (2017)

These Neonatal Service Quality Indicators define the features of a high quality neonatal service.

As Service Quality Indicators, they relate to the structure and delivery of services and as such are different from Clinical Quality Indicators which relate to the quality of care of individual patients. 

It is recommended that neonatal services, with the support of their provider organization:

1. Review themselves against these professional standards and publish information about their current status and future plans in an Annual Report. To make this process easier, each Quality Indicator is accompanied by a number of specific Quality Measures.
2. Use these Service Quality Indicators as a basis for Quality Improvement, publishing their plans for this in an annual Quality Strategy.

Parents and commissioners should expect to have access to information about the performance of neonatal services against the standards described in this document.