Together We Are Giving Every Newborn a Fighting Chance

The Foothills NICU is 1/3 smaller than similar NICU’s across the country, yet it is the busiest in the country. And while their care outcomes are among the best in the country, the existing space cannot accommodate the innovations and best practices that have become today’s standard of care. The new two floor NICU will house 68 beds and state of the art equipment to ensure the highest level of care for the smallest of patients.

OBIX monitoring allows for time-critical, life-saving decisions and intervention in real-time. Teams can monitor baby’s heart rate, mom’s uterine contractions and vital signs.

A new stabilization room will be connected to the labour and delivery unit to allow more space for teams to provide safe and immediate intervention when seconds count.

The Maternal Care Unit is a reimagined approach to labour and delivery, antepartum and postpartum is centralized to enhance patient experience and ensure staff can deliver excellent care.

The new space accommodates 1,000 more births each year.

A specialized emergency care space for children opened at South Health Campus. The space has nine beds and child-friendly murals to help make the hospital a more welcoming space for young patients.

In urban centres, access to resources also creates a community of support. However, living in rural Alberta can feel isolating without access to the right information and help. Investments have helped expand program support across Southern Alberta.

After months with very specialized care providers at the bedside, the thought of going home and independently caring for your neonate can be very intimidating.

These rooms offer a space for parents to care for their newborns in a home-like environment with support only steps away.

Simulation allows care providers to learn new skills and fine-tune delicate procedures in a safe environment. The fragile and complex nature of neonatal care demands very precise treatments and constant innovation.

A pilot research study has now led to new screening protocols for new moms that is allowing for the early detection of risk factors for preeclampsia, a life-threatening condition, that can be prevented with a simple treatment protocol.

In Alberta there is an efficient and effective neonatal care system integrated from Level 3 (most acute) down to Level 1. This ensures that that each baby is placed in the proper level of care most appropriate for their needs at the right time. 

Babies born prematurely or with health complications in smaller rural hospitals often require the very specialized care that only the team of Level 3 NICU care providers at Foothills Medical Centre can give. This is where the SANTS team comes into play. From the first call, the SANTS team provides expertise for the Labour and Delivery team on the ground as they mobilize to respond and stabilize these newborns.

A partnership investment of $5M with the University of Calgary and Alberta’s Children Hospital, the P3 Cohort study is the largest collaboration of its kind. The study has 46 research focused collaborations working toward these common goals:

• Predict which women will deliver preterm;
• Provide opportunities to prevent preterm birth;
• Improve health outcomes for children who are born preterm and their families;

In the Spring of 2019, the expansion of Shaganappi Health Centre allowed Alberta Health Services, Public Health, Calgary Zone to open a fourth Postpartum Community Services program hub on the west side of Calgary.

Donor funding enabled:

• The purchase of furniture and equipment for this fourth postpartum hub;
• Nature-inspired graphics in the postpartum spaces creating an inviting and calming space for families; and
• Free Baby and You classes at four library sites that attract families from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and diverse communities.