Family Integrated Care Program at Mount Sinai

We were delighted to come across this Globe and Mail article At Toronto's Mount Sinai, parents get a crash course in caring for their preemie. Parents of premature babies agree to spend a mininum of eight hours a day onsite, and through the hospital's Family Integrated Care program, they "become well-versed in the medical minutiae of preemies’ respiratory, feeding and other issues." This is a great example of family member and provider partnership, as the parents are trained so that they can make the medical decisions for their baby. The doctors do the medical procedures.

The data gathered thus far is cause for celebration:

In a pilot study conducted from 2011 to 2012, babies in the program grew 25-per-cent faster than the babies looked after by nurses. Breastfeeding rates went from 45 per cent to 82 per cent. Infection rates fell from 11.5 per cent to zero in the parent group. Medication errors went down.

Read more here.

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