Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb launches new neonatology program

DeKALB – To expand care for its tiniest patients and their families, Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb has launched a new neonatology program to care for preterm or fragile newborns.

It is all made possible due, in part, to a partnership formed with Onsite Neonatal Partners, a national practice dedicated to helping community hospitals shore up neonatal staffing needs.

“We’re really excited about this relationship because certainly it enhances the level of newborn services and care that’s available at Kishwaukee,” said Kiran Bhat, a neonatologist for Onsite Neonatal Partners. “It’s going to allow us to really keep as many as babies that are born perhaps a little bit early or have mild-to-moderate medical problems in the community with their families without the need to really transport them out of the greater Kishwaukee area.”

“Now we can bring a specialized care here to DeKalb, which means we can keep our patients closer to home when they do have preterm births or any other complications. That’s been tremendous for the community.”

—  Colleen Faivre, patient care manager in labor and delivery at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital

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Ismail M. Abbasi MD, a neonatologist at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, along with Colleen Faivre MSN, RN, patient care manager in Labor and Delivery at the hospital, talk Thursday, May 4, 2023, in one of the labor and delivery rooms at the facility, about the advantages of having an onsite neonatologist available in the department. (Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com/Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.co)

Colleen Faivre, patient care manager in labor and delivery at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, echoed that sentiment.

“It’s wonderful to have the speciality here at our community hospital,” Faivre said. “We have partnerships … with our larger facilities such as [Central DuPage Hospital], but now we can bring a specialized care here to DeKalb, which means we can keep our patients closer to home when they do have preterm births or any other complications. That’s been tremendous for the community. We have not had to transfer as many patients. We’ve been able to keep them here.”

According to its website, Onsite Neonatal Partners helps support the staffing of community hospitals across the nation with neonatologists, pediatricians and neonatal nurse practitioners.

Before the launch of the new partnership, Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital relied on pediatricians who were working out of the clinic to attend to higher risk deliveries. The pediatricians also would care for babies in the nursery.

Faivre described staff as being pulled in a lot of different directions.

“Now with having onsite neonatology here, we have one specialist for our newborns at all hours of the day, 24/7,” Faivre said. “Now, they’re in-house. So, we don’t have to worry about delays and worrying about interrupting office hours. We don’t have to worry about calling somebody in from home when an emergency arrives. We have that specialist here at all times. That’s a tremendous asset to our hospital.”

Bhat said the practice has found that what it does to keep community hospitals staffed nationwide makes a difference.

“From a safety standpoint, for a woman coming into labor, many times things go really well,” Bhat said. “But there’s a lot of unexpected last-minute unanticipated complications that come up. The first few seconds, first few minutes of a baby’s life can be critically important in terms of how they do long term. So, having a neonatologist in the hospital who’s there from the second the baby’s born gives the baby the best chance of having the best future.”

Bhat added that she believes the new program will benefit patients who frequent the hospital for care.

“This is really going to help to support the obstetrician and allow for safe birth and newborn care,” Bhat said.

Ismail Abassi, a neonatologist at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, shared that sentiment.

“Before this program, many of those mothers who had some high-risk pregnancy, the obstetrician doesn’t bring them here because there’s no neonatology service to take care of the baby if he becomes sick,” Abassi said. “It’s not only when the baby becomes sick. Before that, we have to be prepared. Now, since there’s neonatology service here, they can bring here more mothers who have some risk factors. So, this will help the families to keep here, not to go away to a hospital who have a level three nursery or so but they are here.”

While Valley West Hospital in Sandwich suspended newborn services and inpatient obstetrics last year, some at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital see the introduction of the new neonatology program as an opportunity to fill a void in the area.

Faivre said the new partnership provides a chance to help people who otherwise would have turned to other hospitals for care.

“We may end up seeing more patients who decide to come to us for services with knowing that we have these neonatologists here,” Faivre said. “I think that that community could decide to deliver with us here and provide that level of care that they seek.”