Six new beds for the “littlest patients” requiring intensive care in the region will officially be available at the Sturgeon Community Hospital on Monday.
The hospital will be opening its brand new Stollery neonatal intensive care unit made possible by a $2.3 million investment from the provincial government, supported by another $2 million in donations from the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation for equipment and staff training.
The unit was unveiled Wednesday afternoon when dignitaries and media were invited to tour the three-room unit full of state-of-the-art equipment.
“This means that babies born at 32 weeks or more needing some of that specialized care can now receive that care right here in their community,” said Stollery senior operating officer Christine Westerlund. “It means that families from St. Albert and some of the surrounding areas can stay closer to home but also close to their support systems.”
Jamie McMillan, who gave birth to a daughter in 2014 at the Sturgeon Community Hospital, said it would have made a “world of difference” if a neonatal unit had been open at the time to deal with complications related to her daughter’s birth. As a result, her daughter Lexi, now five years old, was transferred to the Stollery Children’s Hospital NICU in Edmonton, separating the family for days.
“I wasn’t able to nurse her or hold her until she was two days old. I had to get a hospital pass to go see her for a few hours, which was pretty devastating,” she said. “My husband and I were separated (and) our son couldn’t be there; I couldn’t be there with Lexi which was pretty rough.
“I think having a NICU here would’ve make a world of difference for all of us, our entire family.”
Previously, Sturgeon Community Hospital was the largest neonatal site in Alberta without a NICU, according to Stollery vice-president of fundraising and operations Karen Faulkner.
Around 3,000 babies are delivered at the Sturgeon each year, and newborns requiring intensive care would be transferred to one of four Edmonton hospitals with a NICU.
Some newborns would still require transport to other hospitals for more intensive care, including babies needing surgery or multiple pediatric specialists, according to Dr. Ernest Phillips, Sturgeon NICU acting medical site chief.
Currently the Sturgeon transfers about 121 babies per year, or 11 per month. Now that number will be reduced to about two babies per month, Phillips said.
As the NICU gets its feet underneath, it will start out “slowly” by only treating newborn patients 36 weeks and over.
“As we build more confidence, we would come down to 32 weeks,” he said.
The Sturgeon NICU includes six patient beds, one four-bed room and two private rooms. They are equipped with fridges for breastmilk, breast pumps, massage recliners, televisions and NICView cameras so families can still peek in on their newborn if they have to step away.
Phillips said there is “a lot of demand” in the region for neonatal care, and to be more efficient an 18-bed unit would be required, which could be down the line for the Sturgeon.
Faulkner said if the Stollery NICU needs to expand in the future, she knows the Stollery donors are behind it. Future demand on the NICU "really depends on how many babies are born and population birth,” she said. “Any way we can keep kids closer to home, if population increases then we will expand.”
