When a baby is born needing intensive medical attention — such as those born premature, at a low birth weight or with a complex medical condition — they can spend their first days or weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
While in the care of nurses and doctors in the NICU, a newborn continues to grow, develop and eventually becomes healthy enough to move on — or “graduate” — from the hospital and go home.
However, even after an infant leaves the NICU, they still require a special level of follow-up care that often involves check-ups with doctors and specialists as they continue to grow.
A new follow-up care clinic at Tanner Healthcare for Children is ensuring that infants who have graduated from the NICU get the necessary follow-up care they need after they leave the hospital.
The clinic also acts as a resource for parents as they care for their newborn from this critical stage at infancy into early childhood and beyond.
The clinic extends a newborn’s continuum of care, allowing parents to partner with the pediatric specialists at Tanner Healthcare for Children and neonatologists with Tanner Health System.
Through the ability to collaborate with the newborn’s primary care doctors, specialists and other physicians, the clinic provides a comprehensive, team-based approach to follow-up care that’s close to home.
One of the physicians at the helm of the new NICU graduates clinic is pediatric specialist Amanda Nguyen, MD.
Dr. Nguyen explained that having access to a NICU follow-up clinic became essential after the opening of the Sally and John Francis Tanner Neonatal ICU, a brand-new level III NICU at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton.
“We felt that that this clinic would be a great addition to the healthcare system,” Dr. Nguyen said. “It’ll provide us an opportunity to give back to our community and our high-risk infant population, who will need comprehensive services and relationships with specialists as they continue to develop. We wanted to offer this level of care to this wonderful population and provide them with the support they need to succeed in the future.”
The clinic will offer access to a host of services — including comprehensive medical, physical and developmental assessments and check-ups — to newborns who have graduated from any special care nursery or NICU. These assessments are shared with the infant’s physicians.
“We’re seeing more graduates who were born at a very young age — sometimes at 24, 30, 35 weeks gestation,” Dr. Nguyen said. “Because they were born at such a low birthweight, these babies will need time to catch up on their development. They’ll require more assistance, and they’ll need access to a variety of specialists.”
Dr. Nguyen explained that these specialists can range from speech, physical and occupational therapists to nutritionists, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists, neurologists and more.
“Our pediatricians have been treating babies who need this type of follow-up care for years,” Dr. Nguyen said. “This clinic gives us the opportunity to have more focus on our NICU population. I think it’s incredible that we can offer this to our community, and it’s all because we were able to implement the NICU here at Tanner.”
The clinic began in November and will be offered once a month at each of the Tanner Healthcare for Children locations in Carrollton, Villa Rica and Bremen.
The clinic will be held in Villa Rica on the first Thursday of each month; in Carrollton on the second Thursday; and in Bremen on the third Thursday.
The day will serve as an allotted check-up time in addition to a baby’s well-check visit, so parents can learn more about their baby’s development, coordinate appointments, get resources and talk with a specialist about consultations and anything else they may need.
Infants in the program will have follow-up visits at the clinic once a month for the first year after leaving the NICU, but can stay in the program as long as needed.
Dr. Nguyen is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She said that Tanner Healthcare for Children also has relationships with providers and specialty care centers throughout the region and across metro Atlanta.
She hopes that by offering this clinic, she and the other physicians and specialists can collaborate in the care of an infant by bringing access to a range of services much closer to home for parents and families of newborns who are graduating from a higher level of care.
“It’s an honor for to us to offer this program to our community,” Dr. Nguyen said. “These are amazingly strong babies. However, because they are the smallest and youngest in our community, they are part of a very special population. We have an opportunity as pediatricians to help with prevention, treatment and development of our community’s next generation.”
Tanner Healthcare for Children has locations at the new Tanner Health Pavilion in Carrollton as well as in Villa Rica and Bremen, offering comprehensive pediatric services for children from birth to 18 years of age.
For more information about Tanner Healthcare for Children, visit TannerHealthcareForChildren.org.