WRMC Reaches Out for Neonatal Intensive Care
by April 28, 2003 12:00 am 76 views
Washington Regional Medical Center, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences are collaborating to make the WRMC Neonatal Intensive Care Unit an extension or satellite of ACH.
The two hospitals will now provide similar neonatal care, and a neonatologist from ACH, Gregory Franklin, will be on staff at WRMC. Extremely low birth weight babies and babies requiring additional services and/or surgery will continue to be transferred to ACH. But the collaboration and increased level of care at WRMC means those babies will be transported back to Northwest Arkansas sooner.
The UAMS Department of Pediatrics will provide consultative assistance, and ACH will provide training for nurses, lab staff, respiratory therapists and nursery professionals.
“The major emphasis of this endeavor is improved outcomes for all seriously ill infants in an environment close to home,” said Franklin, who is also an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at UAMS.
WRMC has a new state-of-the-art, 16-bed neonatal intensive care unit.