NH Hospital Uses Telehealth to Support Difficult Deliveries
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover is connecting via telehealth with NICU specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital for virtual support for the more than 1,300 deliveries they see each year.
- A telemedicine network launched by Massachusetts General Hospital to provide on-demand neonatal support has expanded into New Hampshire.
Dover-based Wentworth-Douglass Hospital is now connected with specialists at the Boston hospital for virtual care assistance on difficult and dangerous births. The TeleNewborn Consult Program is expected to help Wentworth-Douglass’ Women and Children’s Center, which sees more than 1,300 deliveries a year, keep more patients in-house and improve outcomes.
The program “is a wonderful opportunity to care for premature newborns at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital that would normally be transferred to a different level of care,” Sheila Woolley, RN, BSN, MPH, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, said in a press release. “We’ll be able to keep those babies with their families in their community, which is so important for everybody. As you can imagine, it’s extremely difficult and incredibly emotional being separated from your brand-new baby. This program will allow us to maintain family centered care, which is so important."