CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Driscoll Children's Hospital announced Tuesday that the patient care center will be partnering with CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi- South to open a NICU at Spohn South.
According to a press release form the hospitals, the agreement will provide benefits for it's most vulnerable and smallest patients.
"This is going to be exciting for the community of Corpus Christi," according to Chris Joyal, Director of Driscoll's NICU unit. "This is going to bring a lot of collaboration and create a lot of efficiencies. It's going to create a better level of care."
Joyal is pulling double duty. Not only is he director of the neonatal intensive care unit at DCH, but he is also overseeing creating of a new NICU at Christus Spohn South Hospital combining the best of both hospitals.
According to Joyal, Driscoll provides more specialists for newborns and Christus Spohn has more resources for such a facility.
"We have more sub specialties that are ready and available 24/7. We have our cardiothoracic surgeon, our surgery services so we provide a different level of care for our kids 24/7," Joyal said.
Driscoll Health System's Executive Vice President and COO Mary Peterson said a good example was a child brought into the hospital recently that was incredibly small.
"We had a baby transferred to us this week from the valley that is less than a pound. 400 grams. And it's just amazing how small a baby we can save now," Peterson said.
She said Driscoll has partnered with other hospitals across South Texas to create advanced such intensive care units.
"We help manage a NICU in Laredo, a NICU in Harlingen and of course we're building a new hospital on the border in Edinburgh, Texas," Peterson said.
Construction of the new NICU at Christus Spohn South is already underway
"We come together and we can adapt and put together a short timeline to make this happen in a well productive and efficient way to support the nurses there and of course the patients and the families as well," Joyal said.
Under the agreement, the two organizations will purposefully develop innovative solutions that will provide patients with a peace of mind when visiting the medical center.
“This is an exciting time for CHRISTUS Spohn,” said Osbert Blow, MD, CEO of CHRISTUS Spohn Health System. “CHRISTUS Spohn and Driscoll are very strong. Through this collaboration, we are now stronger for South Texans. We are excited to work closely with Driscoll, a devoted organization that shares our commitment to expert care and outreach to those we are so fortunate to be able to serve.”
According to the release, Driscoll is the only NICU in South Texas to achieve Level IV (Advanced Intensive Care) designation by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“The families of South Texas are the beneficiaries of this powerful collaboration.“ said Eric Hamon, President, and CEO of Driscoll Health System. ”Driscoll Children’s Hospital is proud to join forces with CHRISTUS Spohn – South in the creation of the neonatal care center. We are also grateful to our more than 4,000 donors for providing philanthropic support to make this vision a reality.”
The Driscoll Children’s Hospital Neonatal Care Center is made possible, in part, by a $1 million contribution from the Driscoll Development Foundation and its many supporters.
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