Birth Center Team at Cassia Regional Medical Center
MINI-CASSIA – Cassia Regional’s Birth Center and Lab departments, through their collaborative efforts, achieved 100% perfect specimen collections in December 2011. The Newborn Screening Program within the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare recently notified the hospital of its achievement.
Shawna Chandler, manager of Labor and Delivery with Cassia Regional Medical Center, attributes their success to double checking their documentation for accuracy and improving their transit times. “Our biggest challenge in the past was in transit of the specimens with weekends and holidays,” explains Chandler. Charles Clayton, Cassia Regional’s Lab manager, and Wendy Peterson, RN in Cassia’s Birth Center, met with Carol Christianson, a representative for the State of Idaho, to work out a better plan for transporting the specimens within the allotted 5 day time frame. Their new system is working and they are providing this vital service to their newborn patients in an precise and timely manner.
Idaho law requires that all babies born in Idaho receive newborn screening. Newborn screening identifies conditions that can affect a child’s long-term health or survival. Early detection, diagnosis and intervention can prevent death or disability and enable children to reach their full potential. Each year, millions of babies in the U.S. are routinely screened, using a few drops of blood from the newborn’s heel.
Idaho collects two newborn screening specimens (formerly called the PKU test) which test for 37 disorders. The first screen is usually done at 24 to 48 hours of life, or right before discharge from the hospital. The second screen is done between 7 and 28 days of age, usually at the two week well-child check with the baby’s pediatrician.
With a simple blood test, doctors often can tell whether newborns have certain conditions that could eventually cause problems. Even though these conditions are considered rare and most babies are given a clean bill of health, early diagnosis and proper treatment can make the difference between lifelong impairment and healthy development.
“As a collaborative team, we are hoping to maintain and sustain our 100% accuracy rating with the State of Idaho, but most importantly our goal is to provide this vital service accurately for our newborn population,” said Chandler.
For more information about newborn specimens please contact Labor and Delivery at Cassia Regional Medical Center at (208) 677-6500.
One Comment on "Cassia Regional’s smallest patients get big accuracy"
Great job. It would be great if all hospital could do this. Nice to see the collaboration between nursery and lab!