MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Children's Minnesota is launching neonatal virtual care partnerships with six hospitals across Minnesota and in Wisconsin. Physicians at partnering locations now have 24/7 access to Children's Minnesota's Level IV neonatal expertise, the highest designation by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Recently, Children's Minnesota neonatology program was also ranked among the top in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

"Expert, specialized care should be available to all newborns, regardless of where they're born," said Dr. Mark Bergeron, director of special care nurseries and neonatal virtual care at Children's Minnesota. "These partnerships bring us one step closer to that reality and help us achieve our vision of being every family's essential partner in raising healthier kids by allowing us to provide our expertise to patients and families we couldn't otherwise reach."

Learn more about Children's Minnesota Neonatal Program

Partnering hospitals include:

• Regina Medical Center – Hastings, MN
• District One Hospital – Faribault, MN
• New Ulm Medical Center – New Ulm, MN
• Buffalo Hospital – Buffalo, MN
• Cambridge Medical Center – Cambridge, MN
• Western Wisconsin Health – Baldwin, WI

"We are proud of our strong partnership with Children's Minnesota," said Dr. Lisa Saul, perinatologist and president of the Mother Baby clinical service line at Allina Health. "By allowing Children's Minnesota neonatal specialists to actually see the baby and more easily connect with physicians, we are able to better serve our patients closer to their home."

Virtual care is transforming the ability of physicians to collaborate, enabling expertise to be exported across systems and often allowing babies to be cared for closer to home. Through this partnership, physicians can engage in a virtual consultation using audio and video technology with a neonatal clinician from Children's Minnesota. Within minutes, clinicians from both systems can then consult on the care management of the newborn requiring acute evaluation and stabilization after birth, determine if the newborn needs transport and, if so, rapidly deploy the transport team to get the newborn to an advanced center for further care.

About Children's Minnesota
Children's Minnesota is the seventh largest pediatric health system in the United States and the only health system in Minnesota to provide care exclusively to children, from before birth through young adulthood. An independent and not-for-profit system since 1924, Children's serves kids throughout the Upper Midwest at two free-standing hospitals, 12 primary and specialty care clinics and six rehabilitation sites. Additionally, Children's is Minnesota's only Level I pediatric trauma center inside a hospital dedicated solely to children. Children's maintains its longstanding commitment to the community to improve children's health by providing high-quality, family-centered pediatric services and advancing those efforts through research and education. This work is made possible in large part by generous philanthropic and volunteer support from individuals and organizations throughout the state and region. An award-winning health system, Children's received Magnet^® recognition from The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and was verified as a Level I Children's Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons in 2018 – this verification is the highest level of distinction for health systems that perform complex surgical procedures in newborn, children and teens. Additionally, Children's is regularly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top children's hospital.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @childrensmn. Please visit childrensMN.org.

SOURCE Children's Minnesota

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