Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) provide specialized care for critically ill newborns. The first American NICU was opened in October 1960 at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. Several years later, between 1967 and 1976, the newborn and preemie nursery was established and developed at Roanoke Memorial Hospital (now CRMH); the first neonatologist came on board in 1976.  

Now, our NICU is the third-largest in the state and the only in our region. 

Keeping our patients and each other safe calls for collaboration, commitment and attention to detail—right down to our trash. Skipping a step here and there when you’re busy and tossing medical waste or biohazard material into regular trash may not feel like the biggest crisis you faced today, but it is actually a very big deal.

Other health care organizations have reported that some external IT vendors have requested access to patient data by using aggressive language.

If you receive any unexpected requests for access to patient data from an external vendor, please forward those requests to the HIM Release of Information (ROI) Triage team at HIM_ROI_Triage_Team@carilionclinic.org.

The team will review, evaluate and respond to those requests if they determine a response is needed. 

You may recall our CEO, Nancy Howell Agee, and her husband, the Honorable G. Steven Agee, donated $1 million toward building a new cancer center. Since that time, much work on the project has happened out of public view. While projects of this magnitude take time, it’s exciting to share where we are today. 

Each year, approximately 49 million people worldwide are affected by sepsis. Yet, an estimated 35% of U.S. adults have never heard of it.

Whether you work directly with patients or not, knowing the risks and spotting the signs of sepsis are critical to providing quality patient care—and to saving lives!

After an extensive national search, we’re excited to announce that Dr. Rawle “Tony” Seupaul has been hired as executive vice president and chief physician executive. He’ll begin his new role in December.

We continue to monitor COVID-19 and its seasonality in our region. We have seen upticks in community spread and resulting hospitalizations, but regular operations have not been disrupted.

We’ve been fortunate to enter the endemic stage of COVID-19, incorporating our response into our daily operations.  As anticipated, we have seen upticks in cases recently and want to remind employees of the resources available to them.

Music therapy is one of many methods that our health care teams use to help our patients on their journey. Using music-based interventions—such as playing instruments, writing and singing songs—our board-certified music therapists help patients reach therapeutic goals: including, social, communication, physical, spiritual or mental health goals.

This can mean helping patients express difficult emotions through music or regain skills that were lost due to traumatic injuries.  

It’s not uncommon for many working in health care to struggle with alarm fatigue. Whether you’re inundated by email or surrounded by bedside alarms, the noise can sometimes be difficult to cut through.

Our Emergency Management and Police and Security teams are rolling out a new way to make sure you receive emergency life/safety alerts to keep you, your team and patients safe, using the Everbridge Member app.