Advanced newborn care — right here at home.
24/7 service helps keep patients and families close to home.
Lebanon, NH – Dartmouth Health Connected Care and Center for TeleHealth and Dartmouth Health Children’s announce a partnership with North Country Hospital (NCH), a not-for-profit critical access hospital in Newport, VT, dedicated to serving residents of Orleans and North Essex counties, to provide critical neonatal services to NCH patients via telemedicine.
A baby’s birth is a complex process on its own; for some newborns, adjusting to life outside the mother’s body can lead to a need for a higher level of care. Dartmouth Health TeleICN, or intensive care neonatology provided through telemedicine, provides 24/7 real-time assessment and treatment recommendations for babies born at NCH. TeleICN has been shown to reduce the need for transfers, helping to keep patients and their families closer to home.
“We are excited to expand our collaboration with Dartmouth Health,” said Alexandra Bannach, MD, FAAP, NCH’s medical director for pediatrics. “The TeleICN program will further support our constant efforts to provide the highest quality of care to our smallest patients by allowing us to combine the personal, hands-on care our families know and trust with around-the-clock access to specialized neonatal expertise.”
Using state-of-the-art telemedicine technology, a board-certified Dartmouth Health Children’s neonatologist will join the NCH bedside team via live interactive audiovisual technology to provide neonatal care and support for a wide variety of diagnoses.
NCH is the 11th critical access hospital in New England to partner with Dartmouth Health Connected Care for TeleICN services.
“We recognize the pivotal role critical access hospitals play for families and infants across the state,” said Jessica G. Clem, MD, MPH, Dartmouth Health Children’s TeleICN medical director. “These services allow us to help local bedside providers support infants with unanticipated healthcare needs around the time of delivery, which is especially helpful for rural hospitals that are not located near neonatal intensive care unit-level care and also allows us to better support families if neonatal transport to a NICU is necessary.”
Together, NCH and Dartmouth Health Children’s are continuing a shared commitment to delivering advanced, compassionate newborn care—close to home when it matters most.
Michelle D. Tyler, MD, Dartmouth Health Children’s neonatologist, assists a local bedside provider in assessing an infant. Dartmouth Health TeleICN, or intensive care neonatology provided through telemedicine, will now provide 24/7 real-time assessment and treatment recommendations for babies born at North Country Hospital.