Thirty-one hospitals in Kansas achieved the State of Excellence in Education and Training award for neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Vermont Oxford Network (VON) has awarded a “Center of Excellence in Education and Training for Infants and Families Affected by Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome” designation to Memorial Health System (MHS), in Abilene.
The award recognizes that at least 85 percent of the multidisciplinary care teams participating in “Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Collaborative: Improving Care to Improve Outcomes” completed universal training for care of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
Neonatal abstinence syndrome is drug withdrawal syndrome experienced by infants exposed to opioids while in utero. Infants born with NAS are more likely to have respiratory complications, feeding difficulty, low birthweights, and extended hospital stays.
“Our obstetrics department is focused on providing quality care to our community,” MHS Chief Nursing Officer, Angie Johnson said. “They continually work to educate, grow and develop as a team, and we are proud to celebrate this achievement with them, and all the babies they have taken care of!”
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, KPQC partnered with VON to provide 33 hospitals in the state universal training designed to standardize care policies. The collaborative approach to universal training included rapid-cycle distribution of current evidence-based practices to the entire interdisciplinary workforce engaged in caring for substance-exposed infants and families. This approach has been proven to reduce length of hospital stay and length of pharmacologic treatment while increasing family satisfaction. Memorial Health System – Abilene is one of the 31 hospitals in the state that achieved the excellence designation from VON and contributed to the second statewide recognition of excellence in education and training that VON has awarded.
“Our staff are committed to providing the best care to our patients,” MHS OB Unit Coordinator, Holly Pomeroy, RN, said. “We work to engage and empower patients and providers alike, to intentionally improve health outcomes with our collective effort. KPQC is working with the healthcare communities to make Kansas the best place to be a mother, and we are proud to be a part of this program.”
“Congratulations to all the care teams across the state of Kansas who have shown how dedicated the state is to caring for this vulnerable population affected by the national opioid epidemic,” said Jeffrey Horbar, Chief Executive and Scientific Officer of VON.
As a global leader in data-driven quality improvement for newborn care, VON leads multi-center quality improvement collaboratives and provides resources to help interdisciplinary teams improve on the most critical and complex challenges facing newborn caregivers. While more than 250 centers nationwide have completed VON’s universal training for NAS, Kansas is only the second statewide collaborative to achieve the Excellence in Education and Training distinction.
“We have an amazing team of OB staff who are committed to providing quality care to the community,” MHS Nurse Manager, Erica Forbes, BSN, RN, said. “We are very proud of this accomplishment.”