CentraCare adds NICU telehealth services in Monticello birth center

ST. CLOUD — CentraCare announced this week its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Cloud Hospital has launched telehealth services at the birth center in Monticello to allow the health care system's smallest patients to be closer to home and their families.

The services allow the regional birth centers operated by CentraCare, the largest health care system in central Minnesota, to have round-the-clock access to the NICU team at St. Cloud Hospital using iPads with software created by CentraCare.

The software allows the provider to be contacted at home, and if the baby needs to get transferred to St. Cloud, doctors can continue to monitor the patient and provide support to the team by video or phone.

"Before NICU telehealth services, we would have to do a phone consult and try to describe what's going on, and just wait for them to arrive at the birth center to transport them to St. Cloud," Jenna Buganski, a registered nurse in Monticello, said in a statement. "Now, they can talk us through needed steps after seeing the baby."

CentraCare plans to add NICU telehealth services to all its regional birth centers, adding two new locations each year, the release states, with the goal of eventually providing NICU telehealth services beyond the CentraCare service areas.