Newborn Intensive Care Unit Grant Awarded Confederate

              THE SHREVEPORT TIMES Tuesday,_July__31. 1973
Newborn Intensive Care Unit
Grant Awarded Confederate
By MARGARET MARTIN
Times Medical Writer
The Pediatrics Department at
Confederate Memorial Medical
Center has been awarded a;
$37,000 construction grant for a
Newborn fnlensive Care Unit
(ICU) by the Louisiana Develop-ment
Disability Council.
The money is to be matched
with $l8,500 in local funds,
according to Dr. Joseph Little,
head of the Department of
Pediatrics at Confederate and
the LSU Medical School.
Little said the conversion of
the fifth-floor premature nur-sery
into a Newborn-ICU is only
the first step in the developmet;
of the facility.
The second step, he said, will
be acquisition ot a d e q u a t e
equipment and additional per-sonnel.
Dr. Juan Gershanik, a neona-tologist
and associate professor!
of pediatrics at the medical
school, is in charge of the
nursery. (Neonatology is a sub-speciality
of pediatrics which
works with babies from birth to
2R dnys.)
A Newborn ICU, Little said, is
to take care of any seriously ill
baby under one month of age,
although that age is not a hard
an** fast rule.
Patients will include babies
who are considered a risk
because fchev are recuperating
from serious surgery, who have
medical diseases or are prema-ture
babies, or any baby whose
weight is under three and a half
to four pounds.
A newborn ICU is the latest
concent in the cave of the tiny
and sick infant.
MODERN FACILITIES
Modern Newborn ICU facili-ties,
by definition, have certain
specified personnel, which must
include a neonatologist, Little
said.
Because they are so special-ized,
in most areas there is only
one Newborn ICU for a region.
In some places where there
are Newborn ICU facilities, the
neonatal mortality rate has
been reduced 30 to 50 per cent,
Little said.
An example, he said, is the
Robert B. Greene Hospital. San
Antonio, Tex., where in 1966 the
neonatal mortality rate was 24.5
deaths per 1,000 live births, and
in 1971, the rate was 13.1 deaths
per 1,000 live births, ''an almost
50 per cent saving.
"There is no reason we can't!
do that here," he added. "That!
hospital serves the same social-economic
levels of patients that i
we do."
The unit serves the North
Louisiana area, but in the
future, Little said, he hopes
coverage will include the Ark-i
La-Tex. 'If a baby needs care.
there is no reason why he can't
be brought here, why he has to j
be transported to Dallas." the
medical school pysician said.
FORGETFUL BREATHERS
In the two years he has been
at Confederate, L i t t l e said,
Gershanik has upgraded the
greatest deficiencies of the
premature nursery, bringing in
isoJettes and respirators, and
Apnea monitors for forgetful
breathers.
"He has organized the serv-ice
in a modern manner and
with his own expertise has con-ducted
inservice training of per-sonnel—
the neonatal death rate
has already fallen at Confeder-ate,"
Little said. "But because
of inadequate facilities, the
efficiency of the operation has;
sufteied."
"We still explained that when the
nursery was built the concept
called for small cubicles for
each child. Hence, the space is
crowded and il is difficult to get
the unit concept to function
smoothly.
The new ICU will encompass
thp modern open space idea.
There will be 22 isolett.es and
bassinets. Existing walls will be
k n o c k e d out and a nurses
station will be located in the
center of the area, for easy
access and visibility to all of the
beds.
The open area, Little said, |
will make it easier for personnel
to get to the babies. The only
closed area will be a
laboratory-treatment and utility
space.
"We need $30,000 for equip-ment,"
Little said.
Needed are more isolettes to
replace these "which are so old
we can't-get replacements for
them."
Also on the list of equipment,
needs are temperature moni-tors,
recorders to measure the
oxygen in the atmosphere, more
apnea monitors, several more
cardiac monitors and warmers
to maintain the body tempera-ture
of the babies when they
have to be taken out of the
special beds.
FACILITY OBSOLETE
Gershanik termed the present
premature facility "obsolete"
and said the grant money will:
improve chances to provide the
utmost care for the babies.
He said that in two years
several babies in the two-pound
category have lived, "and I
believe their chance without
maximal care would have been
very slim."
"We s t i l l have room for
improvement," he added.
Gershanik also pointed oui
that intensive care Is important
for adults, "and babies, too,
need that kind of care."
"The mortality rate in child-ren
has declined markedly over
the last 25 years," Little said.
"We have eradicated polio . . .
terrible afflictions and serious
disease . . . are less of a
problem. Antibiotics help com-bat
infections. The number of
children who die from serious
infections has been reduced.
•During the same time, the
neonatal birth rate and deaths
which occur in children under
one month — as related to the
total number of live births —
has been reduced only slightly "
That is Little's argument Tor
the Newborn ICU.