THE 2023 INNOVATOR AWARDS PROGRAM
Photo by Edgar Estrada
Advanced Pediatric Care Pavilion | Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Healthcare Innovation had the oppor-
tunity to speak with the core team at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital regarding the Baby Steps program to get their per- spectives and insights on what makes the program so unique. Yui Matsuda, Ph.D., PHNA-BC, assistant
professor, University of Miami, School of Nursing & Health Studies, began by tell- ing the origin story behind the program. Matsuda says, “My specialty is public health nursing, so caring for people in the community is a big thing for me. I teach students and my research area is to improve family health, especially thinking about and caring for parents when a child is sick or has disabilities or developmental delays. We focus on babies and kids, but parents need to be well to be able to care for their children.” She goes on to say, “My baby was in
the NICU, so I wanted the help of a nurse because my clinical specialty is in public health nursing,” she adds. “Even though my son was only in the NICU for a few days, I needed help, and I called my friend Dr. Sarik, and I wanted something like this for others from my personal experience.” Matsuda explains that the program
attempted to launch before the pandemic but wasn’t successful due to the hesitancy toward telehealth at the time. But the team saw the advancements and acceptance
of telehealth and put together a grant to make Baby Steps a reality. Evelyn Terrell, O.T.D., director of tele-
health and special projects at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, adds that, “As Dr. Masuda shared, we had attempted to bring this program to life even before the pandemic and we had some challenges, but this great and amazing grant [Florida Blue Foundation Quality of Patient Care Grant totaling $300,000] was able to help us provide the services. But we selected this population because they are the smallest. We made a decision to focus on this popula- tion that had so many discharge planning needs and transitions of care needs out of all of the populations that we serve. And we felt this was the best opportunity—focus- ing on these patients and these families.” Regarding how the program is struc-
tured, Danielle Altares Sarik, Ph.D., APRN, director of nursing research and evidence- based practice at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, explains that Melody Hernandez, Ph.D., M.D., B.S.N., NICU nurse telehealth scientist, who is the lead on the program, approaches the family at bedside and tells them about the program and asks if they’re interested in enrolling. If they say yes, Hernandez leads them through the process of setting up the telehealth plat- form and schedules them for a follow-up within two to three days after discharge.
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“This gives them enough time to get home, settled, and take stock of what they need and don’t have,” Altares Sarik notes. In that two- to three-day period, the fam-
ily usually has their first follow-up doctor’s appointment and Hernandez will connect with them with some general anticipatory guidance and technology checks. If there’s anything the parent wants Hernandez to look at on the baby, she does that through the telehealth technology. Some families are comfortable at this point and that may be their last visit with Hernandez, but there are families that continue to want addi- tional support or have questions. For two weeks after the discharge, families can set up an appointment with the service or they can access telehealth services on demand. For example, Altares Sarik says, “Our
population is about 70 percent Spanish speaking and about 70 percent of our patients access care through public health insurance. Language concordance is often a challenge and once they’re in the com- munity, caregivers may or may not be able to access services. The one-on-one support that the Baby Steps program provides through connections [in the community] can make the difference between the fam- ily being able to see a specialist or improve that transition for the family.” As for the mechanics of the program, Terrell notes that the Baby Steps platform
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