Monthly Article

Special Delivery
By
Manish Jain, MD FACOG

            A special delivery is on the way to Oakwood Annapolis Hospital in the form of a completely brand new, $4 million dollar Oakwood Annapolis Birthing Center.  Just like an expectant parent we are very excited to share the news.
            Oakwood Annapolis Hospital has been serving the Western Wayne County region for fifty years.  It functions as a full-service community hospital with 259 beds.  The current Birthing Center functioned well in serving the needs of the community but was in need of a major overhaul.  The current unit consists of up to five Labor, Delivery and Recovery beds (LDRs) but if used as private rooms would only be equal to 4 rooms.  Postpartum and antepartum beds consist of 18 beds that are all semi-private.  The staff assigns rooms so that most patients have a private room.  The triage area consists of three evaluation beds, and the operating room has two operating suites.  The nursery could potentially house up to twenty newborns.  This system of LDRs, semi-private postpartum rooms, and a large nursery are certainly relics of a bygone era in maternity care.
The Birthing Center is not just undergoing a “face-lift”; it is being completely rebuilt from the ground up.  Construction began in November 2006 and should be completed by the end of December 2007.  The construction is being done in phases so that we can continue to provide care to our patients.  The first phase should complete by the end of March 2007.  This phase will bring the first of the new rooms online. 
Prior to the start of construction a lot of planning was done to make sure that the Oakwood Annapolis Birthing Center would lead the region.  The obstetrical consumer has changed greatly in their wants and needs over the past few decades.  One constant is first and foremost they want excellent and compassionate care.  Our new unit design had to enhance our ability to provide the highest level of care.  Obstetrical consumers do not want to view their pregnancy and delivery as an illness, but instead as a chance to welcome a new addition to the family.  The new Birthing Center has to be able to blend the philosophy that birth is a natural event with the knowledge that modern obstetrical care improves maternal and neonatal outcomes.  We knew we had to design a unit that is not overly clinical in appearance but more home-like and inviting to family (gone are the days of the expectant father pacing in the waiting room).  The new unit also had to allow for growth.  As Western Wayne County has grown, we hope to increase our delivery volume from 800 deliveries per year to 1200 deliveries per year.  The planning team consisted of many members, including physicians, nurses, administration, and architects.
The new facility will consist of 11 Labor-Delivery-Recovery-Postpartum (LDRP) rooms.  The beauty of these all-private rooms is that it allows the patient and the family to spend their stay in one room instead of being transferred after delivery.  This allows more continuity of care by the nursing staff.  This results in increased patient satisfaction.    We also know that “patient handoffs” increase the chance for error, thus by eliminating them we can reduce the risk of error.  Another exciting feature is we will have the opportunity to let our patients obtain comfort during the labor process thru the use of aqua-therapy. The LDRPs will all have private en-suite bathrooms with showers, and some rooms will have whirlpool tubs.  These new rooms also will have beautiful hardwood floors and wood cabinetry that will hide much of the clinical equipment from view.  The layout of the spacious (average 320 square feet) rooms also allows family members to have their space.  A sofa and recliner that goes completely flat will allow the support person a place to rest as well.  A stereo with CD player will allow our consumers to have “musical therapy”.  A flat screen television will also be present.  Convenient electrical outlets will allow family members to charge cameras or use other electrical devices.  Wireless-internet will give laptop users the opportunity to communicate via email, and to send recently downloaded photos to other relatives and friends across the world.  Most newborns will remain with their mothers in the same room for their entire stay to enhance bonding and the ability to breastfeed.  Our trained nurses will be available to help these new moms and dads learn the ins and outs of taking care of their newborns, but when they need that little time alone, the newborn can go to the nursery.  The nursery will consist of six bassinets.  Pediatricians will have an area where they can examine the newborn in the room or in the nursery.  These new LDRPs are going to give us the “WOW” factor that we currently miss.
  The LDRPs are not going to be the only new change on the unit.  A new nursing station will be constructed allowing our staff to better monitor the progress of labor.  A new family waiting room will be added as well.  The waiting room will also have a consult room where a physician can discuss with family the care that our patients are receiving.  A multipurpose room will also be created that will function as a classroom for our patients and staff.  The operating theater will gain a new recovery room with two recovery beds that allow for more intensive monitoring of post-operative care.  Two rooms will be set aside for antepartum care for our mothers with high-risk conditions.  Triage will receive a new hardwood-like floor so that it will blend in with the rest of the new unit.  
Even though we are creating a new unit, we are taking along many of the things that already make us a wonderful place to have a baby.  The Women’s Health potion of the Oakwood.org website will continue to give the latest information on their health and how Oakwood Annapolis can enhance it.  Nice touches like the ability to pre-register, the baby gallery, and information on the multitude of prenatal classes that we offer make this a great website for parents-to-be.  The on-site family pantry allows the patient and family members to grab a quick snack during a very busy time period.  Twenty-four hour anesthesia coverage allows us to continue to provide our laboring patients with the safest and most effective pain management options.  As we all know not everything always goes according to plan.  So for these emergencies we have twenty-four hour in-house Obstetrical coverage by attending obstetricians and pediatric coverage by Neonatal Nurse Practitioners.  We also have a neonatal transport team that allows us to quickly and safely transport a newborn to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center in Dearborn.  All parents can rest assured that their newborn is being protected from leaving the unit with the newborn security system (HUGS) that alarms when an infant is moved from the unit without authorization.
Having a world-class facility is just part of the new Oakwood Annapolis Birthing Center.  The other part is the investment in the people that staff the new unit.  Our nurses are being trained in a couplet care staffing model, and receiving extensive cross training to achieve optimal efficiency.  New physicians are being recruited such as Essam Khraizat, MD, Lan Bui, DO and myself, partnering with Oakwood Healthcare at Michigan Women’s Care, PLLC in Canton.  The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is instituting new conferences to improve our communication and care.  These changes and additions will truly make for an impressive new unit.
The new Oakwood Annapolis Birthing Center will allow obstetrical providers to market the fact that they practice in a beautiful modern facility.  In today’s ultra-competitive health care market this will definitely provide an edge in recruiting new patients to our practices.  This will benefit the whole hospital and its providers.  Maternity care is often the entry way for patients into a hospital system.  If a woman is impressed with their maternity care experience, then they are more likely to obtain other care for themselves and their growing family at that institution and by that institution’s staff members.  That results in increased market share for the institution and all its specialties.  So please inform your patients, friends, and family that the new Oakwood Annapolis Birthing Center will soon be ready to provide intimate and modern obstetrical care to the women of our community.