Newman Regional Health Earns Award for Dedication to Improving Care for Opioid-Exposed Infants and Families
31 hospitals in Kansas help state achieve 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 Newman Regional Health.
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.
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. Newman Regional Health 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.
“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.
About Newman Regional Health: Newman Regional Health is a not-for-profit 25-bed Critical Access Hospital owned by the citizens of Lyon County, Kansas. Recognized as a Level 4 Trauma Center, Newman Regional Health provides inpatient acute and medical rehabilitation services along with a full range of emergency and outpatient care to patients of all ages in Lyon County and surrounding areas in East Central Kansas. Newman Regional Health offers 24/7 care with a newly renovated, state-of-the-art 19-bed emergency room and 10-bed Clinical Decision Unit. With a mission to improve health in the community by providing high quality care and a vision to be a valued, trusted partner and regional provider of exemplary services, Newman Regional Health receives recognition as a top Critical Access Hospital each year.
About Vermont Oxford Network: Vermont Oxford Network (VON) is a worldwide community of health care professionals dedicated to improving the quality, safety, and value of care for newborn infants and their families through a coordinated program of data-driven quality improvement, education, and research. Members use confidential information from the world’s largest and most comprehensive databases of infant data to benchmark their practices and outcomes and identify areas for improvement. Teams from around the world address critical and complex challenges of newborn care with evidence-based quality improvement methods guided by VON expert faculty and resources. www.vtoxford.org.