Arkansas Children's Hospital Nursery Alliance

Arkansas Children’s Hospital has the only Arkansas Department of Health-designated Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the state. Arkansas Children’s Hospital has created the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Nursery Alliance to support hospitals around the state so that their patients and families can receive care closer to home.

The agreement, part of Arkansas Children’s statewide network of care, puts into place coordination of care between neonatologists, nursing, and other clinical staff at ACH’s NICU and physicians in member hospitals’ NICUs and newborn nurseries to help further improve the quality of newborn care as measured through outcomes, in particular, infant mortality.

The Nursery Alliance creates networking and learning opportunities for both hospital members and Arkansas Children's Hospital, shared between people who are caring for newborns to work together to improve the health and well-being of babies and their families.

How the Arkansas Children's Hospital NICU Team Supports Nursery Alliance Hospital Members

• Neonatologists at ACH provide immediate consults to physicians, educational support, quality data review, implementation of best practices in collaboration with ACH, and provide training as needed to help the babies at the member hospital or at ACH get the best care possible.
  
  
• ACH nurses and other key interdisciplinary care teams are available for consults, staff education, and access to best practice standards of care to assist member hospital team members in the care of infants and high-risk newborns.
  
  
• The alliance offers development of opportunities to improve outcomes and participation in ongoing research.
  
  
• Formal processes for coordinated care prior to transport when a higher level of care is needed have been instituted, plus post-discharge follow-up by monitoring and measuring late morbidities through an expanded High-Risk Newborn Clinic network.