UVA Health Establishes Telehealth Connection for Premature Babies at Prince William Medical Center
In an effort to provide seamless, world-class care for premature babies, UVA Health has established a new telehealth connection between the experts at Prince William Medical Center’s 12-bed, Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and UVA Health Children’s experts in Charlottesville. This connection will enable a second opinion whenever needed by the NICU team, according to Dr. Zan Zaidi, UVA Community Health’s chief medical officer.
Dr. Jagadish Elumalai, the medical director of neonatology for Prince William Medical Center’s Level III NICU, emphasized that this new, secure technology will make it easier for his expert team to consult with specialists at UVA Health Children’s. The specialists at UVA Health Children’s, ranked as the No. 1 children’s hospital in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report, cover various areas of neonatology, including pediatric cardiology, infectious disease, endocrinology, nephrology, urology, and other specialties.
The new tool not only connects specialists with the babies in the NICU but also with their families to help build trust and ensure that parents are involved in their baby’s care plan. Dr. Elumalai highlighted the importance of direct communication between parents and specialists from UVA Health Children’s.
Dr. K. Craig Kent, UVA Health’s chief executive officer and executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia, emphasized the significance of integrating medical centers and clinics in Prince William, Haymarket, and Culpeper with the rest of the UVA Health system. This integration expands the capacity to care for patients with complex needs across Virginia, ensuring that families at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center’s Level III NICU have direct telehealth access to highly subspecialized experts in Charlottesville.
With the labor and delivery department at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center typically delivering 1,800 to 2,000 babies annually and the Level III NICU admitting 212 babies in 2023, this new telehealth connection is poised to enhance the patient and family experience for some of the most vulnerable patients.