Arkansas Children’s Hospital Leads Alliance with Statewide NICUs, Newborn Nurseries to Promote Best Infant Care

Since 2016, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) Nursery Alliance has built a statewide network to educate and learn from fellow neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and newborn nurseries in Arkansas to provide the best care for newborns.  

ACH NICU neonatologists, nurses and other clinical staff share education and training with members of the alliance, allowing care to stretch beyond the walls of the hospital to the following partners:

• CHI St. Vincent, Hot Springs  
• Conway Regional Health System, Conway   
• Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Pine Bluff   
• Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, Russellville   
• Saline Memorial Hospital, Benton   
• South Arkansas Regional Hospital, El Dorado   

Other nursery alliance entities include Arkansas Children’s Care Network and the ACH Injury Prevention Programs.   

Ashley S. Ross, M.D., pediatric neonatologist and chief of neonatology at ACH and professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, serves as the alliance’s physician lead. ACH has the only Level IV NICU in the state, and this alliance allows it to partner with Level I and II NICUs.   

"Creating opportunities to improve and better coordinate care outside the walls of ACH is one of the best ways to improve outcomes for children in Arkansas. It can have a real impact on community health and helps standardize care by being part of the alliance," Dr. Ross said.   

Changing the Narrative

According to 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, Arkansas ranked third highest for infant mortality in the United States, with 7.67 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. To help combat this startling trend, ACH's NICU provides alliance members with educational support, training on NICU best practices and opportunities to participate in research.   

In addition to Dr. Ross, three Arkansas Children’s neonatologists, a NICU nurse educator and several NICU hospitalists share their expertise with the alliance.   

How the Alliance Works

ACH and alliance members work to identify local areas of improvement and focus on newborn health.   

The program strengthens education in several ways, including:   

• Interventions; might include hospital care teams shadowing nurses, respiratory therapists or speech therapists so providers can learn from each other  
• Simulation scenarios to increase confidence and education around a particular topic   
• Some partners participate in video consultations with an ACH neonatologist for timely newborn care advice   
• Local nursing skills fairs and on-site observation days at ACH   

ACH experts typically meet with each site at least twice yearly to discuss their needs. In-person simulation exercises take place throughout the year. It holds an annual ACH Nursery Alliance Summit for executives and clinicians from alliance hospitals.   

Spreading Knowledge Through Partnership 

ACH’s leadership of the alliance has led to several achievements in member training and education.   

"In conjunction with the ACH Simulation Center, we developed a scenario to train physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists at Conway Regional to administer surfactant," a chemical compound used to help newborns in respiratory distress, Dr. Ross said. "We helped implement a CPAP respiratory support program at CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs. We also helped facilitate using glucose gel to prevent hypoglycemia in at-risk newborns. The original work was at Hot Springs but shared across the alliance sites."   

The alliance also helped with training opportunities around video intubation, providing simulations in Conway and Russellville. The alliance is piloting telemedicine simulation at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Russellville, where an ACH provider can help run a local simulation remotely. 

This article was written by the Arkansas Children’s content team and medically reviewed by Dr. Ashley S. Ross.