HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (Wednesday, April 11, 2018) – CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs announced today that it is joining Arkansas Children’s Hospital Nursery Alliance, which coordinates care between neonatologists at ACH’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and physicians in CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs’ Anthony Childbirth Center, further improving the quality of newborn care.

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs is the newest hospital member of the ACH Nursery Alliance, which was established in 2016. Neonatologists at ACH will provide immediate consults to physicians at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, educational support, quality data review, implementation of best practices in collaboration with ACH, and provide training through telemedicine for the purpose of improving neonatal care close to home and provide support as needed to help the babies at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs or at ACH get the best care possible.

In addition, the alliance offers development of opportunities to track and monitor outcomes and participation in ongoing research. Another benefit is post discharge follow-up by monitoring and measuring other health conditions through an expanded High Risk Newborn Clinic network.

“Arkansas Children’s is creating a statewide network of care in order to deliver the right care at the right time close to home for the children of this state,” said Marcy Doderer, president and CEO of Arkansas Children’s. “Today, we’re excited to welcome CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Nursery Alliance, the first nursery alliance in Arkansas that focuses specifically on neonatal care by partnering with local hospitals. Together, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs will ensure Arkansas’ newborns get better today and can be healthier tomorrow.”

Doderer shared her enthusiasm for the Nursery Alliance and the bright future for Arkansas’ tiniest patients. “The Alliance is bigger than our two hospitals with Conway Regional, Jefferson Regional and more to come. When we collaborate as the full Alliance, we will share our data and talk about quality overall within the Alliance. Each of these community hospitals brings their own level of expertise, experience and data to the table so that together we elevate the care for all of the infants being cared for in the Alliance. Together we can change the trajectory for neonates in our state.”

Arkansas Children’s Hospital operates the state’s only designated Level IV NICU (100 beds), the highest level of acute care, and has access to pediatric specialists from all disciplines. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs manages the largest birthing center in the region it serves, with physicians delivering nearly 1,000 newborns every year. The Anthony Childbirth Center has capacity for 15 newborns. The nursing staff is made up entirely of registered nurses, and CHI St. Vincent’s Level II nursery can provide care for most infants.

“At CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, we have provided quality and compassionate care to the next generation of Arkansans for decades. With this new nursery alliance, the newborns and new mothers of southwest Arkansas will be the most important beneficiaries of our partnership,” said Anthony Houston, president of CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs. “This is a wonderful opportunity to work with Arkansas Children’s to share resources and expertise, and to offer to our newborns and patients a new, collaborative approach to elevating the wellness of Arkansans.”

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs is the largest hospital in southwest Arkansas, and it has a 130-year legacy of providing excellent and compassionate care to residents of Garland County and the region. The Anthony Childbirth Center had 991 deliveries in 2017.

The Anthony Childbirth Center is named in honor of the Anthony family, longstanding benefactors of CHI St. Vincent and health services in Hot Springs and all of south and southwest Arkansas. Specifically, the Katherine C. Anthony Charitable Trust will be used to help fund an extensive remodeling of the CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs center to allow for an improved model of patient care for mothers and newborns, while also improving the functional and aesthetic appearance of the center.

“CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs is entering the ACH Nursery Alliance at an important time in our history, as we change our model to meet the needs of the community. Everything we’re moving toward here will allow us to continue improving the already excellent level of patient care provided by our clinicians,” Houston said.

Through the Arkansas Children’s Nursery Alliance agreement, ACH supports CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs to help ensure the care families count on close to home continues in their nursery.

The neonatal period is specific to the first four weeks after birth (neonate or newborn), a time when changes happen rapidly. Many critical changes can occur in this period:  Feeding patterns are established; bonding between parents and infant begin; the risk of infections that may become more serious are higher; and many birth or congenital defects are first noted. This care is usually centered on newborn infants with a range of problems, varying between prematurity, birth defects, infection, cardiac malformations and surgical problems.

About Arkansas Children's

Arkansas Children’s, Inc. is the only health care system in the state solely dedicated to caring for children, which allows the organization to uniquely shape the landscape of pediatric care in Arkansas. The system includes a 336-bed hospital in Little Rock with the state’s only pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center, burn center, Level 4 neonatal intensive care and pediatric intensive care, and a nationally-recognized children’s research institute. It is one the 25 largest children’s hospitals in the United States and is nationally ranked by U.S. News World & Report in pulmonology, neonatal care, cardiology and heart surgery and urology. Arkansas Children’s Northwest Arkansas in Springdale includes 233,613 square feet of inpatient beds, emergency care, clinic rooms and diagnostic services. Arkansas Children’s also blankets the state with outreach programs that include telemedicine, mobile health and school-based health solutions. A private nonprofit, Arkansas Children’s boasts an internationally renowned reputation for medical breakthroughs and intensive treatments, unique surgical procedures and forward-thinking research and is committed to providing every child with access to the best care available, regardless of location or resources. Founded as an orphanage, Arkansas Children’s has championed children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow for more than 100 years. For more info, visit www.archildrens.org.

About CHI St. Vincent

CHI St. Vincent, founded in 1888, is the largest integrated and community-based physician organization in Arkansas -- a system with more than 1 million patient visits per year, serving patients from all 75 counties in the state. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, an acute-care facility, is licensed for 282 beds. CHI St. Vincent Infirmary, an acute-care facility licensed for 615 beds, is located in Little Rock and is ranked the “best hospital” in Arkansas by U. S. News and World Report. It is the first hospital in the state to earn Magnet© recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Other CHI St. Vincent hospitals include CHI St. Vincent North, licensed for 69 beds, in Sherwood; CHI St. Vincent Morrilton, a critical access hospital in Morrilton, licensed for 25 beds; and CHI St. Vincent West, an outpatient campus in west Little Rock. The system includes a network of 300 primary care and specialty physicians, a home health agency, two joint venture inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, and affiliations with more than 1,000 physicians. Visit www.CHIStVincent.com for more information.