A free parking trial to increase visitation and improve extremely low birth weight infant outcomes

OBJECTIVE: Frequent parental visits are likely to benefit infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), particularly extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <= 1000 g) survivors. Parking costs (>= $10 per visit in our center) may deter visitation, especially for low-income parents. We assessed whether free parking (FP) decreased survivors' length of stay (LOS). STUDY DESIGN: Parents (N=138) of ELBW infants (7 to 14 days old) were randomized to usual care (UC; n = 66) or FP (n = 72). The primary outcome was LOS. RESULTS: Among survivors (n=116), LOS was not significantly less with FP than UC (means: FP =89, UC = 102 days, P=0.22; medians: FP = 82, tic =84 days, P=0.30). Groups did not differ significantly on proportion of visit days (FP =0.69, UC = 0.72, P= 0.47), parental involvement, knowledge/skills and satisfaction. Post hoc analyses found that parents with a greater income, a car and fewer children visited more. CONCLUSION: More potent interventions than FP are needed to increase parental visits and reduce LOS for ELBW infants in disadvantaged urban populations.