The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne

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Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program

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Screening data for children born in the 2015 to 2017 (calendar years)

Raw Data - Screening


Eligible	The number of babies who are eligible for screening.	237,352
Screened	The number of babies who completed their screen.	236,162
Screen refer	The number of babies who did not pass their VIHSP screen and have been referred for diagnostic assessment.	2,000

Key Performance Indicators


Participation	The number of Screened babies as a proportion of the total number of Eligible babies.	99.5%
Direct Refer	The number of babies who were referred to audiology due to a clinical risk indicator as a proportion of the total number of Eligible babies.	0.08%
Screened within one month corrected age	The number of babies who completed their screen within one month corrected age as a proportion of the total number of Eligible babies.	98.9%
Refer rate	The number of babies who obtained a positive result on the newborn hearing screen as a proportion of the total number of Screened babies.	0.85%

Diagnosis

Of those referred to audiology following a positive result on the newborn hearing screen for whom audiology assessment results were returned (1,974), results were as follows:

Normal hearing 57.4%
Any hearing loss 42.6%

23.6% had permanent, bilateral hearing loss of moderate or greater degree (the “target” condition being screened for)
12.4% had permanent, bilateral mild hearing loss
22% had permanent unilateral hearing loss of any degree
30% had temporary hearing loss
12% had other types of hearing loss