Grand River: Kids
Grand River Hospital's NICU is celebrating 20 years of service as a neonatal intensive care unit.
In 2003, Grand River Hospital’s Special Care Nursery was upgraded to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, enabling us to manage more complex and acute cases right here at home. This past year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the NICU. Every year our staff help over 900 infants and families navigate a less-than-simple start to what, for many, was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives.
Today, our NICU offers 22 beds and the ability to manage more complex and acute cases right here at home. But Dr. Ian Wilson, a pediatrician who has been at Grand River Hospital since 1988, still remembers the small six-bed NICU on the ninth floor of the KW Campus and appreciates what a long way we have come since that time.“The NICU at Grand River Hospital provides a very advanced level of care that has progressed through the last three decades at light speed,” says Dr. Wilson. “It is staffed by excellent nurses and pediatricians who have 'cut their teeth' at the various tertiary level care centres."While technology and clinical practice have evolved greatly over the past 20 years, it’s also the care and connection provided by the incredible NICU team to their patients and families that contribute to everyone’s healing journey.“The staff and medical team have been absolutely amazing,” says Carli, whose daughter Leo was born prematurely and is currently in the NICU. “I’m a person who likes to ask a lot of questions, and this is also my first child. The team has been absolutely amazing and attentive to both me and my daughter the entire time, taking care of her [and] me as well. I spend every day here and that can be hard. But the team makes the space so welcoming. I know when I come in I’m going to see smiling faces, they’re giving you positive updates about your baby, and it’s been really great considering the circumstances.”Deepthi, also a first-time mom whose son, Sriniket, is currently in NICU, shares a similar experience after giving birth at 30 weeks. “I honestly couldn’t have done this without the team. Everyone here has been so positive…he’s literally friends with everyone,” Deepthi jokes about her son. “I am friends with everybody, too. I know so many nurses and they’re all so caring and kind and encouraging that everything is going to be okay. I am okay because of them and he is okay because of them. He is now 35 weeks and breathing and feeding on his own and we should be able to go home in a few weeks.
Carli and Deepthi’s experiences are just two out of thousands of families who have been cared for by the NICU team in the last 20 years. And as we look back and celebrate all of the progress we've made and the milestones we've reached, we’re also looking ahead to what’s to come.
Patricia Blancher, Program Director has highlighted the efforts and results of the three-year moreOB program, led by Hannah Kuelber. The moreOB program launched in early 2022 and has been an active presence in the Childbirth Unit since to improve the quality of care for unplanned obstetrical emergencies. The unplanned obstetrical emergencies during childbirth that have the devastating potential to separate parents and children were the intentional focus of the OB program to find ways to avoid both the event and the separation. Our team of experts, through intentional focus, has been able to analyze and improve the process, but we have also provide education and hands-on practice opportunities for teams to collaborate together for more seamless work to send families home together. An example of this have been post-partum hemorrhage skills training and scenario reviews.
Our initiatives to date have ranged from streamlining medication retrieval processes and improving computer documentation to physical layout improvements in the operating room (OR), including the opportunity to connect the fetal monitor to the network in the OR. As a unit, we have collaborated to purchase and stock a postpartum hemorrhage response cart, which will be taken to each case for expeditious management of this potentially life-threatening emergency. Our team of obstetricians, midwives, and nurses are engaged in participating in many hands-on learning opportunities that strive to build rapport between team members through communication improvements impacting patient outcomes and overall experience.
As we look forward in our journey of moreOB within the childbirth program, we will continue to focus on building a stronger, collaborative team that manages obstetric crises as efficiently as possible. Quality projects will continue to be developed along the journey of the moreOB curriculum to directly impact team collaboration, and patient outcomes and improve family experiences. Thank you for your generous contributions to this program. Your support is ensuring parents remain closer to their infants, staff preparedness for critical emergencies, and improved overall quality of care for unplanned obstetrical emergencies.
Patricia Blancher, Program DirectorHannah Kuebler – more OB project lead
Through the Foundation donors have played a critical role in helping us enhance care over the past 20 years, whether that be in funding birthing and labour beds like we did this year or ensuring parents have access to postpartum suites, so parents can stay on site with their infants eliminating travel and keeping parents in the hospital near their NICU child to help with changing, feeding, and daily care throughout their stay.
From Hannah Kuebler RN (she/her) Professional Practice Advisor Children’s & Childbirth Program