Changes to Blood-Sampling Protocol to Reduce the Sampling Amount in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A Quality Improvement Project

(1) Background: This study aimed to evaluate whether the implementation of a modified blood-sampling protocol, which focused on need-based laboratory testing and minimized venous sampling by replacing it with point-of-care testing (POCT) via capillary puncture, successfully reduced iatrogenic blood loss, incidence of anemia, and the frequency of blood transfusion among extremely low-birth-weight infants (ELBWIs) without negatively affecting neonatal outcomes. (2) Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 313 ELBWIs with a gestational age (GA) of between 23 and 28 weeks and born between 2013 and 2019. The infants were divided into two groups corresponding to the periods before (period I) and after (period II) the implementation of the modified blood-sampling protocol in January 2016. Propensity score matching was conducted to minimize selection bias. Clinical data, including the frequency and amount of blood sampling, the frequency and volume of blood transfusion, and clinical characteristics, such as gestational age, birth weight, and neonatal outcome data, were collected and compared between the two groups. (3) Results: No significant differences in GA or birth weight between the two periods were observed. The total sampling volume a month after birth (16.7 +/- 4.1 mL vs. 15.6 +/- 4.4 mL, p = 0.03) and the total sampling volume during hospitalization days (51.4 +/- 29.7 mL vs. 44.3 +/- 27.5 mL, p = 0.04) in period II were significantly lower than those in period I. There were no differences in terms of anemia (hemoglobin 10.8 +/- 2.2 vs. 11.0 +/- 1.9, p = 0.43) and mortality or morbidity, such as intraventricular hemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, necrotizing enterocolitis, and sepsis, between the two periods. Although the transfusion frequency and amount did not present significant differences between the periods, we observed a positive correlation between the transfusion frequency and sampling volume (coefficient: 0.09, 95% CI: 0.08-0.11). (4) Conclusions: The modified blood-sampling protocol effectively reduced the level of iatrogenic blood loss without negatively affecting the neonatal outcomes.