Rehospitalization
There is an increased risk for rehospitalization of late preterm infants(Bird et al., 2010; Jain& Cheng, 2006) These infants have a 4.4 rehospitalization rate versus 2% for term infants and 2.7% to 3% for preterm infants less than 34 weeks(Escobar, Clark, & Greene, 2006). These hospital readmission rates were significantly higher for late preterm infants who were never admitted to the NICU or discharged early from the initial hospital stay(Escobar et al., 2006).