Texas Health Fort Worth honored for pilot project
A team at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth won a national award for a pilot project that helps prevent pain and blood transfusions for tiny babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The AEIX Sylvia Moss Brown Award for Excellence – the only one in the nation – was awarded for the project, which involves drawing placental blood rather than drawing blood from the babies.
Dr. Mary Frances Lynch, medical director of the hospital’s NICU, who is on the medical staff of the hospital, said she first saw the procedure in medical literature.
“When I started seeing reports about places using placental blood instead of sticking the baby for blood right after birth I said, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool,’ ” Lynch said. “I had the idea and brought the idea to the unit. We had this amazing group of people I work with that assembled the team and made it all happen over time.”
A team at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth won a national award for a pilot project that helps prevent pain and blood transfusions for tiny babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Previously, blood for admission lab tests were either drawn from the infant’s umbilical cord, or from an arterial puncture, which involves inserting a needle into the baby’s wrist.
“They don’t have much blood to start with and then if we take a lot of it, it sets them up for already needing a blood transfusion shortly thereafter,” said Ashley Tullous, a NICU supervisor and the lead high-risk delivery nurse on the project.
Taking placental blood also means babies are less likely to need medication to keep their blood pressure up, Tullous said.
The pilot started with 20 babies born at 35 weeks’ gestation or less, but the NICU now is using placental blood for all NICU admissions, if possible, Tullous said.
Besides Lynch and Tullous, the project included a manager, a nurse educator, a lead high- risk delivery nurse, two project lead neonatal nurse practitioners, a perinatologist, an obstetrician, a midwife, labor and delivery nursing staff, and managers from hematology, blood bank, and microbiology.
“It’s good to see that good things we’re doing for babies was recognized as something special,” Lynch said.
In pick above from left, team members include: Dr. Fran Lynch, neonatologist, medical director on the staff of the NICU; Angela Vaughn, neonatal nurse practitioner; Ashley Tullous, R.N.C.-N.I.C., NICU nursing supervisor; Lindsey Canon, R.N.C.-N.I.C., women’s and infant services director; Stephanie Eidson R.N.C.-N.I.C., clinical education specialist NICU/infants; Amy Bruner, R.N.C.-N.I.C., NICU manager; Stacey Rosebrook, neonatal nurse practitioner.
by Judy Wiley • Posted December 21, 2018
