The latest technologies to prenatal and neonatal health care for northeast Louisiana were introduced earlier today.
St. Francis Medical Center announced the new equipment and services in a community meeting.
The three devices acquired impact some of the most critical needs for mothers-to-be and young infants.
Stacy Mange, director of the Women & Children's Unit at St. Francis says a new fetal monitoring system brings multiple benefits.
"The MONICA system allows moms more freedom and movement. With this you don't lose fetal movement because of the way the technology is designed," said Mange.
Improvements have been made for the most delicate patients.
Oliver Howard is Specialty Coordinator for Pediatrics. He says AccuVein is a hand-held device to help locate veins in premature infants.
"It will show you a holographic image to locate the vein and it indicates the depth of the vein. This allows for greater accuracy and less pain due to needle sticks," he said.
Another advanced item is the RetCam3.
Prenatal Care Manager Jodie Phillips says the camera not only tracks retinal development, it’s keeps the family altogether.
"With the camera, we can take pictures here and send them off to specialists, allowing the family to stay in town," said Phillips.
Previously, when necessary, the infant would have to be relocated to another facility to daily track progress. Many times, parents could not go with their baby.
The items are welcomed additions to St. Francis, where reimbursement and funding issues earlier this year threatened operation of the only Level 3 NICU unit housed in northeast Louisiana.
The equipment was acquired through $200,000 raised by the St. Francis Medical Center Foundation.
