HARTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – Hospitals in the Pee Dee will use millions of dollars in grant money to fight the opioid epidemic during pregnancy.
Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center in Hartsville is considered a rural hospital with a little over 100 beds. It serves both Darlington and Chesterfield counties but hospital officials say rural hospitals lack equipment and need help treating expecting moms and their newborns.
Blair McElveen, Carolina Pines Nurse says infants in withdrawal need special attention.
“It is emotional seeing them and that they go through [that] during pregnancy. The moms and the babies when they come out. It is hard,” said McElveen. “The way normal babies react to eat, sleep, poop is completely different. Mainly irritable, jittery, [and] shaky. Just the same as adults in withdrawal.”
McElveen was one of the two staff members that brought the idea of applying for a pilot program with the SC Department of Health and Human Services.
The hospital was awarded up to $30,000 as one of four hospitals in the state to receive the Managing Abstinence in Newborns (MAiN) program grant. The program is an innovative treatment plan for opioid-dependent newborns. The plan will treat infants that are dependent or addicted to opioids early on to reduce pain. The press release says the mom is allowed to room with the baby for a week to provide care and gain parenting skills while the baby continues to be weaned off the opioids at home, avoiding a lengthy hospital stay.
“Having the treatment that’s been studied and proven to work. I think will give these babies and their parents a fighting chance,” said Kelly Miller, the Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center Director of Women and Children Services.
Miller says now the hospital will wait until the baby shows signs of withdrawal, then allows the mom to decide what medicine to use to wean the baby off the opioid.
Hospital staff says although they are a small hospital, the number of babies exposed to opioids has increased over the last five years.
“This is not new to us. We are not immune to it because of our size. We see babies born exposed to substances more than we would like to,” explained Miller.
McLeod Health Foundation received two similar grants of $2,521,000 from the to equip hospitals in nine different counties in the Perinatal Regions; Chesterfield, Claredon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Marlboro, Marion, and Williamsburg Counties.
The grant money will train hospital staff on how to identify substance abuse. The grant will also provide telemedicine equipment (or skype like technology) for patients at rural hospitals to be seen by a neonatologist at the McLeod Regional Medical Center.
“South Carolina has got a higher rate, especially in our region and the smaller rural communities than anywhere in the United States. It’s a huge problem here,” Jill Bramblett, McLeod Health Foundation Executive Director.
Staff with Carolina Pines and McLeod hospital hope more education and resources will help lower the numbers
“We want them to be happy healthy productive little guys or girls. But also hope we can help the moms so that they have a way to be healthier to have a great outlook on life and to be able to enjoy their newborn,” said Bramblett
Both programs are expected to begin later this year.
