To quantify the impact of patient- and unit-level risk adjustment on infant hospital-onset bacteremia (HOB) standardized infection ratio (SIR) ranking.

A retrospective, multicenter cohort study.

Infants admitted to 284 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the United States between 2016 and 2021.

Expected HOB rates and SIRs were calculated using four adjustment strategies: birthweight (model 1), birthweight and postnatal age (model 2), birthweight and NICU complexity (model 3), and birthweight, postnatal age, and NICU complexity (model 4). Sites were ranked according to the unadjusted HOB rate, and these rankings were compared to rankings based on the four adjusted SIR models.

Compared to unadjusted HOB rate ranking (smallest to largest), the number and proportion of NICUs that left the fourth quartile (worst-performing) following adjustments were as follows: adjusted for birthweight (16, 22.5%), birthweight and postnatal age (19, 26.8%), birthweight and NICU complexity (22, 31.0%), birthweight, postnatal age and NICU complexity (23, 32.4%). Comparing NICUs that moved into the better-performing quartiles after birthweight adjustment to those that remained in the better-performing quartiles regardless of adjustment, the median percentage of low birthweight infants was 17.1% (Interquartile Range (IQR): 15.8, 19.2) vs 8.7% (IQR: 4.8, 12.6); and the median percentage of infants who died was 2.2% (IQR: 1.8, 3.1) vs 0.5% (IQR: 0.01, 12.0), respectively.

Adjusting for patient and unit-level complexity moved one-third of NICUs in the worst-performing quartile into a better-performing quartile. Risk adjustment may allow for a more accurate comparison across units with varying levels of patient acuity and complexity.