Angel Eye offers parents a 24/7 remote access to St. George NICU
For a new parent, there are few things more difficult after giving birth than leaving the hospital without your baby; but for so many parents of infants in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, that separation is a harsh reality.
Although the NICU at Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital welcomes parents and encourages them to spend as much time as they can with their babies, the realities of life mean that eventually parents have to go home, back to their other children, or back to work.
Now, thanks to a secure live stream platform known as Angel Eye, parents, family and friends of NICU babies can check in on their little ones 24/7, watch videos of the interdisciplinary rounds discussing their baby, receive photos and text messages from the nursing staff and more.
“This is such a great way to offer peace of mind to families when they can’t be here, especially for families who live farther away,” said Emily George, lead nurse in the NICU at St. George Regional Hospital.
Angel Eye was added to the NICU at St. George Hospital in March of this year and so far, the feedback from families has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I haven’t heard anything negative yet,” said Janet Staheli, St. George Hospital NICU manager. “They all say it is just amazing.”
The service is offered completely free to all NICU patients’ families, thanks to the generosity of several donors. In addition to serving as a window for parents to view their baby anytime they like, Angel Eye offers an education platform where parents can access all the pertinent videos, documents and resources to help them care for their babies once they get home.
“We like to have parents watch the video on kangaroo care and skin-to-skin before they attempt it; plus, there are required videos about CPR and car seats that are uploaded to the portal so they can have the convenience of watching them on their phones,” George said.
Angel Eye can be accessed on the mobile web on both Android and iOS platforms, and the parents control who has access to their child. In the months since Angel Eye has been offered, George said they have had patient family members from across the country logging in to monitor their little loved ones.
“We’ve had close to 200 from Connecticut, a lot from New York and Ohio, plus Arizona, Nevada and Utah,” George said. “Parents also like that the nurses can send them a quick text message update on how much weight their baby has gained, how well they’re eating and pooping, all the kinds of updates parents want to hear.”
One concern some of the NICU staff had before implementing the Angel Eye platform was whether or not parents would be upset to see their baby doing normal things on the livestream, like spitting up, crying occasionally, or dropping their binky out of their mouth. In order to meet those concerns, before granting Angel Eye access to parents, the NICU staff shares a script with them reminding them that they should not be alarmed when they witness these things happening on the livestream, nor is that a reason to contact the nursing staff multiple times a day.
“So far nearly every patient family has been extremely understanding about those rules,” Staheli said. “The peace of mind this camera access offers seems to outweigh any of those concerns.”
But until someone experiences the challenge of leaving a baby in the NICU, it’s unlikely they will understand how wonderful it is to have this service.
“It really helps provide a connection they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten,” George said. “We won’t ever be able to understand how much they value it.”
This Live Wellcolumn represents collaboration between healthcare professionals from the medical staffs of our not-for-profit Intermountain Health hospitals and The Spectrum & Daily News.
This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Live Well: Angel Eye offers parents a 24/7 remote access to the NICU
