High-Risk Mothers Get Help

              8-B Fri., Dec. 4, 1981 SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER The Times
High-risk mothers get help
By SALLY REESE
Times Medical Writer
A hotline system for expediting care of high-risk
mothers and infants will become operational in Loui-siana
on Tuesday, Dec. 8.
When the system is in operation, physicians and
hospitals will be able to call a toll-free number to find
out where beds are available for specialized care of
the high-risk. It will be open to 107 hospitals.
Procedure of the system designed to link refer-ring
physicians and hospitals with centers that have
perinatal intensive-care units was explained here
Tuesday by the chairman of the Louisiana Com-mission
on Perinatal Care.
Dr. Terry D. King of Monroe met with Shreveport
hospital staffs and administrators at Schumpert Medi-cal
Center.
He said HOTLINE, as the system is called, will
serve not only as a link between hospitals that provide
specialized care and those who do not, but also as a
means for rapid transport of high-risk patients when-ever
necessary. Additionally, the system will serve as
a conduit for consultation on specific maternal and/or
neonatal problems.
The Louisiana Commission on Perinatal Care has
set up the HOTLINE system with funds appropriated
by the Louisiana Legislature. The Louisiana Perinatal
Coordinating Center in New Orleans will process the
calls. Contract for the computerized program was
awarded to Anserve Inc., a telephone answering
service.
Anserve's Peter Asher said provider hospitals
will be contacted every eight hours so the coordinating
center can be constantly updated on bed availability.
King, the commission's chairman, said each shift
should have a person designated to supply this bed
update to the center.
King's purpose Tuesday was to brief North Loui-siana
provider hospitals on procedure for HOTLINE
providers. Shreveport has three — Schumpert, LSU
Medical Center and Willis-Knighton Medical Center.
Each has an intensive-care unit for high-risk new-borns.
The commission chairman said the receiving
hospitals will be responsible for ensuring prompt
transport of referred patients. Should one be unable to
mobilize a transport team, it will be expected to notify
the coordinating center so arrangements can be made
to move the patient to another receiving hospital.
Any provider hospital may close itself to the
Louisiana Perinatal Coordinating Center for any rea-son
and continue to accept patients through private
referrals. King said the center will not monitor the
reasons for closing, but will monitor the number of
times a hospital is closed. This will be done so the
perinatal commission can be kept up to date on status
of bed availability statewide, he explained.
The question of financial eligibility will not be a
concern of HOTLINE, King said.
The commission he heads was created in 1977 by
the Louisiana Legislature, its main task to address the
high infant mortality problem that existed in the state
at that time.