November is Prematurity Awareness Month, Announcement Comes in Celebration of World Prematurity Day on Friday, Nov. 17
MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, along with Pediatrix Medical Group, who has been a long-standing neonatology partner with MemorialCare, have come together to create the Miller Children’s & Women’s Neonatal Network. This new relationship enables coordinated delivery of provider services to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) network establishing a forum for improved communication, financial transparency, and shared program and provider planning. The Neonatal Network will have shared governance between Miller Children’s & Women’s and Pedatrix, with the neonatologists remaining employees of Pediatrix.
Miller Children’s & Women’s features a level IV NICU, the highest designation in California, signifying it can care for the sickest and smallest babies. In addition, it has an extremely low birth weight program – caring for babies less than 2 pounds at birth – and has a transport program that allows Miller Children’s & Women’s the ability to support area community hospitals with smaller and lower acuity maternity and neonatal care.
“Expanding Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach as a regional destination for neonatal and pediatric care is an important part of our mission in caring for the most premature and sickest babies, as well as their families” says Yair Katz, chief executive, Miller Children’s & Women’s. “With all that we are seeing going on in the world today in children’s health, we were deeply committed to seeing this through so we can do our part to ensure all babies and their families have access to the highest level of care possible regardless of socioeconomic status.”
To successfully execute this strategic initiative, Miller Children’s & Women’s has appointed Dr. Antoine Soliman as the Regional Medical Director of the Miller Children’s & Women’s Network. In this administrative capacity, Dr. Soliman will oversee the performance and quality of the network, lead the onboarding of new sites and serve on the joint operating committee. Dr. Soliman will remain a practicing neonatologist in a limited capacity in Miller Children’s NICU, to maintain his direct patient care provider experience. In addition, Dr. Soliman will continue to serve as medical director of the Miller Children’s NICU and oversee the recruitment of his replacement for this role.
“I’m deeply honored and humbled to accept the regional directorship of the Miller Children’s & Women’s Neonatal Network,” says Dr. Soliman. “Miller Children’s & Women’s has made great advances in neonatal care the last few years, graduating healthier babies born quite ill and extremely premature. Our team is remarkable and expanding our capabilities further into the community is paramount to us. I can’t think of a better time to announce and launch this partnership, as we celebrate Prematurity Awareness Month and World Prematurity Day later this week.”
Miller Children’s & Women’s, one of eight free standing children’s hospitals in California, is unique in that it has a full-service maternity and high-risk program licensed under the children’s hospital. This expanded neonatal network will also support regional care by laying the groundwork for recruitment of top talent and bringing access to high-risk maternal and neonatal care into bordering communities’ backyards – delivering the highest level of care possible.