Northside Hospital’s Special Care Nursery (SCN) recently received a generous donation of $20,000 from Neonatology Associates of Atlanta, PC, a subsidiary of Pediatrix Medical Group of Georgia.  The donation, which is the fourth such donation in as many years, will be applied toward the purchase of educational materials for patients and staff and other needs that arise throughout the year.

The SCN at Northside provides acute care to babies, who need out-of-the-ordinary attention – babies with conditions ranging from heart problems to underdeveloped lungs.  As many as 100 premature and special-needsbabies are cared for at one time, with more than 2,000 annually.  Many families brought to the SCN spend days, weeks or even months at a time in the unit.  Money donated to the unit helps to make these families more comfortable and allows staff to purchase tools and equipment to allow them to become better caregivers.

In 2009, through the financial support from Pediatrix, Northside purchased a training mannequin, named "Sim NewB," and developed by Laerdal in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, which provides Neonatal Resuscitation Provider (NRP) training with realistic simulation experiences for staff and students.  Students and staff must assess "NewB" for changes in heart rate, breathing, color and tone, which are all parameters of NRP training.

"Pediatrix was extremely generous in providing our unit with the funds to purchase this latest technology that will provide more realistic hands-on education opportunities for our staff," said Janet Casheba, RNC, BS, nurse clinician in Northside’s Special Care Nursery.  "More realistic training encourages use of critical thinking skills and development of manual skills that are used on high-risk deliveries, as well as in the SCN, everyday."

Founded in 1979, Pediatrix Medical Group is the nation’s leading provider of maternal-fetal, newborn and pediatric subspecialty physician services. The company also is one of the nation's largest providers of newborn hearing screens.  For more information, visit www.pediatrix.com

For additional information about Northside Hospital’ s maternity and newborn services, visit  www.northside.com

Caption: (l-r) Janet Casheba, RNC, BS, nurse clinician, NorthsideHospital Special Care Nursery, and Kenneth Kupke, M.D., Pediatrix Medical Group and medical director, Northside Hospital Special Care Nursery, show off the hospital’s new "Sim NewB" training mannequin.

The Northside Hospital health care delivery system is a not-for-profit health care provider that has served north Metro Atlanta for nearly four decades.  With more than 2,000 physicians on its medical staff, Northside sees nearly 700,000 patient visits a year.  Physicians and staff provide afull range of health care services, including women’s services, cancer care,emergency services, surgery, specialty medicine and a wide array of outpatient services at many locations.  Northside Hospital offers high-quality health care at Northside Hospital-Atlanta in Sandy Springs, at Northside Hospital-Cherokee in Canton and at Northside Hospital-Forsyth in Cumming.