Feasibility and implementation of neonatal hearing screening in The Netherlands
Bert Van Zanten

Feasibility and implementation of neonatal hearing screening in The Netherlands* Universal hearing screening is done in the Netherlands since the mid sixties of the last century. Babies are screened at the age of 9 months by the preventive health care system, which runs well baby clinics in every baby’s neighbourhood and reaches 95 % of all babies in their first year of life. In the Netherlands universal neonatal hearing screening cannot be done in the hospital environment shortly after birth. About 32 % of the babies are born at home. During pregnancy most women in the Netherlands are guided and medically controlled by certified midwives. If the pregnancy evolves uncomplicated many women decide for their own home as location for the delivery. Therefore the coverage of a universal hospital based neonatal screen would be less than 70 % and thus useless. Since 1995 a number of trials have been done to find out how the neonatal screening can be done either at the baby’s home or in the Well Baby Clinic. It was shown that screening can be done under these conditions with high quality and in April 2002 the Dutch government has decided for the replacement of the existing 9-month’s hearing screen by a neonatal screen. The screening protocol comprises three stages, the first two being done by automated OAE-screening, and the third stage by automated ABR-screening. Over a 3-year period the implementation will be completed and it is expected that coverage of the neonatal population of at least 95 % will be reached. By the end of this year about 12 % of the neonatal population will be covered. In this presentation the results of the trials and the why and how of the implementation will be presented.