A new collaboration between a southern Illinois hospital and a St. Louis health system is designed to provide better care for newborns.
Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion and SSM Cardinal Glennon are using telemedicine to help treat babies in Heartland's neonatal ICU remotely from St. Louis.
Doctors first used the new service last September on Brittany Allen's newborn son, Quincy, who was diagnosed with a heart problem, which required an echocardiogram.
"It was a very long process and watching him sit there and cry was horrible. But, it was the best thing for him. They were able to see everything that was going on and decided everything was ok with him. It was just a little hole that needed to patch up and it did it on its own."
Hans Driessnack is Heartland Regional Medical Center's COO. He says collaborations like this energize medical professionals.
"That's why we're in healthcare, to improve the quality of people's lives and to see stories like that. They don't always work out that well. I'm happy we started one for one with the system."
Officials with both facilities say the collaboration was years in the making.
