create a community that helps us recruit faculty and students .”
Personalized care for mothers and children Corey Pollard , DPM , a Scott & White podiatrist in College Station , and his wife , Melanie , learned how important nearby neonatal intensive care unit ( NICU ) services are when their twin sons were born prematurely in 2010 at Scott & White in Temple . Both boys spent time at Scott & White ’ s Level III NICU , for the most medically fragile and premature newborns . Aiden passed away at three weeks , but Liam was able to leave the NICU after 107 days , and is now a chatty , happy three-year-old . “ The staff did a superb job , and we were able to come and go as we pleased but it was at least an hour and a half drive from College Station . This new facility will make a huge difference ; it allows more families to remain here , reduces the strain on their finances , travel , and work schedules , and promotes family togetherness during a stressful time ,” says Dr . Pollard , who along with his wife made a generous donation to assure the comfort of families at the new College Station NICU , and also commissioned a bronze sculpture for the healing garden of the new hospital .
The new hospital ’ s maternal and child services will encompass six labor , delivery and recovery beds ; 15 postpartum beds , and a nursery ; and a state-of-the-art Level II neonatal intensive care unit ( NICU ), balancing the latest technology with family
NICU staff including Dr . N . Venkata Raju ( foreground ), and left to right : Kendra Harris , Dr . Khaled Hilal , Natalie Zamulinski , and Tamara Depenning .
comfort . A Level II NICU offers intensive care for sick and premature infants in need of additional support beyond regular nursery care .
“ We ’ re trying to make the birthing experience and mother and baby ’ s stay in the hospital the best in town ,” says Daniel G . Ransom , MD , chief of pediatrics for the Scott & White College Station Region .
For postpartum care , says Dr . Ransom , Scott & White is introducing a new type of nursing care not found anywhere else in College Station — couplet care . With one nurse cross-trained in obstetrics and pediatrics , he explains , babies can stay at their mothers ’ bedsides , and patients will receive more personalized care and health education . Even charting for the medical record is done in the room via computer , so nurses can have greater personal contact time with patients .
Two fellowship trained neonatologists — N . Venkata Raju , MD , and Khaled Hilal , MD — staff the NICU . The unit is capable of caring for moderately ill babies and those born at 32 weeks of gestation or more . It offers 24-hour access to families and uses a design noted for being a best practice in the nation : a “ pinwheel ” design , with four beds surrounding a nurses ’ pod to provide critical line-of-sight care . The 16-bed unit has three pinwheels , each with space for a rocking chair , as well as a privacy curtain for parent visits . The unit also has four isolation rooms for the sickest newborns , and two transition rooms where families stay for two nights before taking their babies home .
The legacy An array of old photographs tells the story of the College Station clinic groundbreaking back in 1985 . Now , in 2013 , we ’ ve watched the construction of the new College Station hospital through an online time-lapse camera . The investment that began in the Brazos Valley back in 1985 continues with the opening of the Scott & White Hospital – College Station and clinics in 2013 . n
sw . org | November 13 The Catalyst 11