We recognize the pivotal role critical access hospitals play for families and infants across the state.
Jessica G. Clem, MD, MPHDartmouth 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.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children's is the only comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region. Fully integrated in Dartmouth Health and anchored for more than 30 years by Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD)—in Lebanon, NH—Dartmouth Health Children's promotes health, advances knowledge, and delivers the best patient and family-centered care for infants, children, and adolescents across New Hampshire and Vermont. Dartmouth Health Children's conducts groundbreaking research and educates the next generations of health professionals as the primary pediatric partner of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Highly skilled and collaborative child health professionals provide care in multiple settings across the region. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD) and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester. Primary care appointments in general pediatrics are available at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Bedford, Concord, Lebanon, Manchester and Nashua, NH and Bennington, VT; as well as at Dartmouth Health members: Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Cheshire Medical Center, New London Hospital and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center.