Categories of Care (2011)

This document reports on the methodology used and the revised categories of care which BAPM EC recommends to its members and neonatal services across the UK. 

The 2001 categories of care replaced the 1996 categories of care. In the subsequent 10 years, neonatal care changed and it was recognised that the 2001 categories were no longer fully fit for the purpose they were designed for. Examples include:

1. The categories lacked some of the interventions currently being used in routine care. An example of this was therapeutic hypothermia.

2. The allocation of certain elements was no longer considered to require the level of care previously felt to be the case. An example of this was the management of NAS which under the 2001 categories was defined as High Dependency care for the whole duration of care, whereas many units currently manage stable patients on the postnatal/transitional care ward.

3. There were elements which were considered too vague to provide assurance that consistent application was applied across all neonatal units. 

In the light of these issues and following the publication of the 2010 BAPM Standards for Hospitals providing Neonatal Care, the BAPM Executive Committee (EC) commissioned a working group (BAPM Data Working Group [BAPM DWG]) to review, and where necessary revise, the neonatal categories of care.