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Neonatal specialists in Little Rock on call for regional hospitals Thursday, May 15, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Hospitals in Fort Smith, Fayetteville Johnson and El Dorado are the first to take part in a new program that uses telecommunications technology to link regional hospitals with neonatal care specialists in Little Rock. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' neonatal telemedicine program allows neonatologists at UAMS and Arkansas Children's Hospital to be on call for St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith, Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson and the Medical Center of South Arkansas in El Dorado. Neonatologists specialize in the care of newborns up to two months old. Only four or five nurseries outside Arkansas' capital city have their own neonatologists, so the assistance of neonatologists from Little Rock will have a big impact, Dr. Curtis Lowery, chairman of UAMS' obstetrics and gynecology department, said Wednesday. "They'll be doing emergency consults, then also would be kind of helping them (local physicians) in the day-to-day management of some of these babies as well," Lowery said. "We think ... it's going to make care, coordination and transfer of babies back and forth more seamless and better, with better flow of information and better support across nurseries. We think it'll make a big effect on care delivery in the state." Mothers and sick newborns can be transported by helicopter from anywhere in the state to one of the participating hospitals, Lowery said. UAMS expects to add another eight hospitals to the program by the end of the year. The program is supported by federal funding from the National Institute of Health, administered by UAMS' Center for Translational Neuroscience and its Community-Based Research and Education Core Facility. The program for newborns builds on UAMS' Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System - or ANGELS - program for high-risk pregnancy cases, Lowery said. Lowery created the ANGELS program, a telemedicine program that makes UAMS' maternal-fetal specialists available to hospitals statewide. "UAMS is a state institution, and it's not just in Little Rock anymore. ... Our goal is to expand this in all aspects of health care where the support is needed. And I would also say it's not limited to just doctor support - it could be also allied health support like speech pathology and nutrition and allied health care," Lowery said. He said UAMS hopes the program for newborns will further the work ANGELS has done to decrease the state's infant mortality rate. Arkansas' infant mortality rate is tied with West Virginia for 38th in the nation, meaning that 37 states have fewer infant deaths per capita, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Arkansas was ranked 41st in 2006 and 46th in 2005. |
