Important Screening Could Save Newborns' Life
By: Jocelyn Tovar, KARK 4 NEWS
Updated: February 16, 2013
The screening for critical congenital heart disease is not mandatory but is being done at UAMS.
Mary Salazar is a registered nurse in the infant division of UAMS. She spent her Tuesday morning performing a Pulsox screening on a brand new baby girl.
"Some babies have heart defects and they go to the nursery and they go home and those defects don't show up for several days," said Salazar. "And by then often it's too late."
The test is painless for the baby. A small strip on the hands and feet measure how much oxygen is in the blood.
"Then we compare those levels and use a recipe or protocol that tells us is this baby at risk? or not at risk," said Salazar.
A level of below 90 is an automatic fail and requires immediate intervention.
"Right now she's reading at a hundred," said Salazar "And you can't get any better than that."
The screening was endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics at the end of 2011.
"We jumped on it very quickly and started to look at how to implement this program in our nurseries," she said.
Although not mandated UAMS has screened every infant in their care since January of 2012.
Eight in 1,000 babies will have some type of heart condition two to three are critical.
"It's not a great number of children, but it's a very important screen because if we do catch even one child it pays for screening up to two thousand children." Salazar said.
And before the newborns even know it, they're back safely in their mother's arms.
Not only is the screening painless it's relatively cheap.
Most hospitals already have the equipment they need to perform the test.
Mary Salazar is a registered nurse in the infant division of UAMS. She spent her Tuesday morning performing a Pulsox screening on a brand new baby girl.
"Some babies have heart defects and they go to the nursery and they go home and those defects don't show up for several days," said Salazar. "And by then often it's too late."
The test is painless for the baby. A small strip on the hands and feet measure how much oxygen is in the blood.
"Then we compare those levels and use a recipe or protocol that tells us is this baby at risk? or not at risk," said Salazar.
A level of below 90 is an automatic fail and requires immediate intervention.
"Right now she's reading at a hundred," said Salazar "And you can't get any better than that."
The screening was endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics at the end of 2011.
"We jumped on it very quickly and started to look at how to implement this program in our nurseries," she said.
Although not mandated UAMS has screened every infant in their care since January of 2012.
Eight in 1,000 babies will have some type of heart condition two to three are critical.
"It's not a great number of children, but it's a very important screen because if we do catch even one child it pays for screening up to two thousand children." Salazar said.
And before the newborns even know it, they're back safely in their mother's arms.
Not only is the screening painless it's relatively cheap.
Most hospitals already have the equipment they need to perform the test.
