Patient Stats
- UAMS sees around 3500 deliveries annually, with about half needing care from our NICU team.
- We care for infants as young as 23 weeks gestation, and birth weights of less than one pound.
- We care for infants and families from all 75 Arkansas counties.
Patient and Family Support
- We have recently expanded our partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas, who is currently renovating the existing family room space in the NICU. Families also have access to rooms in the Family Home across the street from UAMS.
- Other services in the NICU include dedicated nutritionists, pharmacists, speech pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, discharge planners, and social workers, as well as lactation consultants, patient education specialists, translation services, trained volunteers, and chaplaincy support.
- We have several mechanisms and committees dedicated to ongoing safety and quality initiatives, to ensure continuing excellence in family-centered neonatal care. We participate in the Vermont Oxford Network quality collaborative to track our outcomes (compared to other centers around the country) and consistently perform well.
- We work closely with several community partners, and the Arkansas Department of Health, on projects and initiatives related to improving infant health and safety and decreasing infant mortality. We have a very active Infant Safety Program here at UAMS.
- We work very closely with our OB colleagues, the interdisciplinary Fetal Diagnosis and Management Program, and the neonatologists who work in the Arkansas Children’s Hospital NICU (we are all members of the same physician group, and UAMS faculty).
Outreach, Teaching, and Research
- Dr. Whit Hall connects with up to 20 nurseries weekly with his telenursery rounds. Outside providers have access to consultation with OB (through the UAMS center for distance health high-risk pregnancy program) or neonatology through ACH Angel One transport. Our faculty write and review many of the ANGELS obstetric and neonatal guidelines, outlining up to date medical management of a variety of pertinent topics for providers around the state.
- Research discoveries include neonatal pain management, and the relationship of CO2 and blood pressure to brain bleeds; we have participated in several national, multi-site clinical trials and are scheduled to begin participation in another three over the next year. This is an important way for us to advance the field of neonatal-perinatal medicine.
- 90% of Arkansas pediatricians train at ACH and UAMS, and their experience with deliveries and neonatal resuscitation occurs almost exclusively at UAMS. We also participate in training 2 neonatal-perinatal fellows each year, as well as other students and learners.