During an evening and night on call, housestaff frequently encounter neonatal patients with unexpected clinical changes. In the event that a patient’s status changes significantly or requires a major intervention, the examining house officer should write an "interim event" note in Star Panel describing the patient’s presenting symptoms, exam findings, and the management plan. Any patient who deteriorates and needs to be moved from the intermediate nursery to the high-side should have appropriate documentation in the chart to facilitate communication between the on-call and primary care teams and for medico-legal reasons.

Updated 7/17/2007