Technology connects babies in distress to the specialists they need

March 25 — PROVO — Newborn babies in distress throughout Utah County and central Utah can now be seen by specialists at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center - without having to leave the hospitals where they were born.

Physicians from the hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit have consulted by phone on difficult newborn cases for years. However, they're now able to connect directly to a baby’s bedside at a different hospital through a real-time web camera system. Caregivers at the outlaying facility can hear and see the Utah Valley Regional doctor and receive direction on what care will be best for the infant.

That connection is now in place with American Fork Hospital and Orem Community Hospital. It will soon be able to reach the Intermountain Healthcare facilities in Heber, Delta, Fillmore, Mt. Pleasant and Richfield.

“This means we don’t have to make the patients come to the resources. We’re taking the resources to the patient,” said Stephen Minton, MD, medical director of the NICU. “It’s very expensive to put people like me at every hospital. Now, we can share the specialists from one medical center with many other hospitals.”

Dr. Minton said the new technology allows him and his colleagues to work with physicians at smaller hospitals and share their expertise right at the time it is needed most. Often, babies can be helped and then go to the nursery at the facility where they were born – avoiding a complicated transfer away from the ones who love them the most.

“It makes for better care. Babies get to stay closer to home and they don’t have to make a long trip to Provo,” said Dr. Minton, adding his team is always ready to accept a struggling newborn if a transfer is deemed necessary.

While Utah Valley Regional is leading the way with this technology along the Wasatch Front, other Intermountain hospitals plan to implement it later this year. Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George and Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City began using it in 2013. Plans are also being developed that will allow physicians to access the technology through their smart phones, giving smaller hospitals 24-hour access to specialists.