Maternity and Infant Care, Radiology Recognition and Cancer Center Accreditation

Atrium Medical Center

Atrium Medical Center is launching a new way to care for the highest risk pregnant women in the Middletown community. The program, called CenteringPregnancy®, is a partnership between Atrium, the Butler County Partnership to Reduce Infant Mortality (PRIM), and the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

CenteringPregnancy® brings eight to 10 pregnant women who are due around the same time together for prenatal care. Each of the 10 visits is 90 minutes to two hours long—giving women 10 times as much time with their provider team. Patients meet in a comfortable group setting outside the exam room and, as part of an ongoing group, patients form a supportive community where they develop skills and confidence to take control of their health. The Centering group health care models combine health assessment, interactive learning and community building to deliver better health outcomes and a better care experience for patients and their providers.

The new CenteringPregnancy® service can lead to healthier babies, and is meant to combat the high infant mortality rates, premature births and low birth weights affecting many newborns in the Middletown community.

Centering meetings will be held Wednesdays beginning September 13 at the Maternal Child Health Center, located on the Atrium Medical Center campus. Free transportation and child care will be provided. Expectant mothers who are interested in enrolling can contact Maternal Child Health Center at (513) 974-5235. Eligibility requirements to join CenteringPregnancy® at Atrium include expectant mothers who are Butler County residents and have a Medicaid health plan.

Priority for enrollment will be given to African-American women, as their infants suffer the highest death rates in the first year of life, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Statewide in 2015, the infant mortality rate was 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births for all races and 15.1 deaths per 1,000 live births for African-American infants.

Good Samaritan Hospital (closed in 2018)

Through a generous sponsorship from The Heart Institute of Dayton (THID), an interactive kiosk that teaches hands-only CPR has been installed at the Dayton International Airport. A collaboration between THID, the American Heart Association and the airport made this community asset possible. An unveiling took place August 24 for local media. The goal is to train thousands of people in this life-saving skill and help more people understand how quickly they can assist a person experiencing a cardiac emergency in public.

Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH) has partnered with Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton (OHOD) to implement general inpatient (GIP) virtual hospice beds. The purpose of these beds is to promote end-of-life symptom management and provide comfort to the patient and families through the transition to OHOD. GIP virtual hospice beds will provide bed capacity within GSH that will allow patients who meet the short stay inpatient hospice criteria to be discharged from a GSH inpatient admission status and re-admitted to an inpatient OHOD bed status. The designated unit to house these beds is the orthopedic oncology unit on 5500. A core team of staff has received the required training and education from OHOD to deliver hospice care.

Congratulations to the imaging department for Good Samaritan Hospital, Good Samaritan North Health Center (Miami Valley Hospital North as of July 23, 2018) and Good Samaritan Health Center – Huber Heights (Miami Valley Health Center Huber Heights as of July 23, 2018) for earning accreditation from the American College of Radiology for Computer Tomography Services (CT scanners). This accreditation is valid through July 2020.

Miami Valley Hospital

Infants born to mothers who take opioids (prescription or illegal) during pregnancy often experience neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), or a group of physical withdrawal symptoms that include fussiness, crying, inability to sleep, fever, jitteriness, diarrhea, vomiting, sneezing and more. To provide comfort to these infants while they are going through drug withdrawal, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Miami Valley Hospital launched a volunteer “infant cuddler program.” Volunteers are not responsible for the physical care of the infants; they hold, rock and gently talk to the babies, and also may walk them in NICU-provided strollers through the unit’s hallways. The launch of this new program garnered media coverage from across Ohio, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta, including both broadcast and print media. As a result, the volunteer office received more than 1,000 calls and many inquiries via the website. The volunteer program is exclusively for babies experiencing NAS.

For the fifth year, the team from Premier Health/Miami Valley Hospital returned to Eldora Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Eldora Dirt Derby. The team responds when an on-track incident occurs. The EMS and track crews make first contact and decide whether to send an injured driver directly to an area hospital or to the infield care center. If a driver is sent to the care center, the staff treats and/or stabilizes the driver before determining the next step. In addition to the care center, Eldora also offers an FAA-spec helipad for CareFlight.

Upper Valley Medical Center

Upper Valley Medical Center has been awarded three-year accreditation in breast ultrasound as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities that meet ACR practice parameters and technical standards per a peer-review evaluation assessing image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs.

The Upper Valley Medical Center Cancer Care Center underwent a highly successful accreditation survey by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons on July 24. Marvin Lopez, MD, the surveyor, was extremely complimentary of the cancer team’s work to meet standards. Commission on Cancer accreditation is awarded only to those facilities that have voluntarily committed to provide high levels of cancer care and undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance. The certification is for a three-year period. 

Back to the September 2017 issue of Premier Pulse