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Akron Children's to move NICU from Youngstown to Boardman St. Elizabeth
YOUNGSTOWN
Moving a handful of tiny babies, some possibly weighing less than a can of pop when born, from St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown to Akron Children’s Hospital’s new neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) at St. Elizabeth Boardman, takes a monumental amount of planning.
The NICU is located in St. Elizabeth facilities dedicated to Akron Children’s — not in Akron Children’s Beeghly Campus, also in Boardman, which houses a step-down, lower level of care unit.
Dr. Elena Rossi, head of Akron Children’s NICU, and the unit’s nurse manager or head nurse, Mary Ellen Michael, are in charge of planning the nine-mile trip.
Dr. Rossi, neonatologist and associate chair of pediatrics for Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley; Michael, nurse manager for the hospital’s NICU and Special Care Nursery, and a plethora of committees are trying to anticipate every situation that might occur during the move.
Move day for Akron Children’s NICU and maternal services from St. Elizabeth Youngstown to the second floor at St. Elizabeth Boardman is April 7, also the date the new facilities open.
The new NICU has 23 individual rooms equipped with a futon, desk, television and storage cabinet so parents can stay with their babies. Also, there are four adjoining rooms that can be opened to accommodate multiple births, and two larger rooms to accommodate twins.
The Family Center has two suites with a double bed and full bath for parents of babies who require a long-term stay, and a waiting area with television, lockers, shower and child-sized furniture, games and toys for siblings. The center is made possible through support of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mahoning Valley and Western Pennsylvania, said Dr. Rossi.
“Moving NICU babies is a very large deal,” said Michael.
They will be moved two at a time in the hospital’s mobile intensive care units. Each run will take approximately two hours, she said.
“It’s a huge undertaking that takes a lot of preparation,” agrees Dr. Rossi.
“We’re hoping the parents will be at St. Elizabeth Youngstown to see their babies off and then meet us at St. Elizabeth Boardman,” she said.
Teams consisting of a neonatal transport nurse, respiratory therapist and two emergency medical technicians will accompany each baby.
A second mobile transport team and vehicle team will be available in the event a baby is referred to Akron Children’s from another hospital during the move, she said.
Also, a delivery team has to be ready at St. Elizabeth Boardman in case a mother arrives there ready to have her baby.
In the NICU, each nurse has one or two babies to care for, and in the 19-bed step-down unit at Beeghly Campus, there is usually one nurse for every three patients.
Dr. Rossi and Michael went so far as having their staff teleconference with ProMedica Toledo Children’s Hospital personnel, who have gone through a similar move, to learn from their experience.
Most of the physicians involved had privileges at St. Elizabeth Youngstown but did not have privileges at the Boardman hospital, and it was necessary to go through that process, Dr. Rossi said.
In addition to getting the frail babies safely to their new quarters, it is also necessary to inform maternity patients, their doctors and ambulance drivers that starting April 7, babies will be delivered at St. Elizabeth Boardman, not at St. Elizabeth Youngstown.
Because there are several differences in how things are situated in the Boardman hospital, the staff had to practice getting from one to the other, they said.
For instance, the NICU and maternity ward are on the second and third floors, respectively, at St. Elizabeth Boardman rather than just around the corner from each other as they are at St. Elizabeth Youngstown, Dr. Rossi said.
“It’s the little things: We have to make sure our ID badges that give us access into restricted areas work,” she said.