Contributed by Valley Medical Center

The number one trigger for the shaking and abuse of infants is the frustration from a crying infant. In an effort to help spread awareness about normal infant crying and the dangers of shaking an infant, Valley Medical Center (VMC) is participating in the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome’s public education campaign, Period of Purple Crying: CLICK for Babies.

VMC was a pilot hospital for the Period of PURPLE Crying, an evidenced based program that educates parents about normal infant crying, ways to cope with the crying and the dangers of reacting in frustration by shaking or abusing an infant. In 2011 VMC and UW Medicine were the only delivering hospitals in Washington State providing this kind of prevention program. Today 21 Washington State hospitals have implemented this program.

CLICK for Babies is a grassroots effort that invites knitters and crocheters across North America to make purple baby caps which will be delivered to families in November and December with the Period of PURPLE Crying program. Now in its second year, CLICK for Babies is a collaborative effort between the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and invited states and provinces who have implemented the Period of PURPLE Crying. Oregon, Washington, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Maine have joined the 2012 campaign in addition to the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia.

“It’s been gratifying to see this program grow so quickly,” said Kelle Baxter, MSN, RNC, FNP-BC, IBCLC, Perinatal Clinical Educator for VMC’s Birth Center, a member of the Shaken Baby Prevention State Task Force and the VMC ambassador for The Period of PURPLE Crying. “Parents and caregivers need to understand the sometimes exasperating features about normal infant crying, and how to reduce the stress and frustration parents experience when they have a baby who cries. Shaken Baby Syndrome causes such devastation and yet is completely preventable.”

Valley Medical Center is accepting purple caps through December at the Birth Center Admitting desk (on the 2^nd floor of the hospital). More information about the CLICK for Babies campaign, including patterns for caps, guidelines and details about the national campaign are available at www.CLICKforbabies.org.

As Valley Medical Center has reached the one-year anniversary of our Strategic Alliance with UW Medicine, I am pleased to report that we have already increased the availability of quality healthcare in our community. 

In the July 2011 to July 2012 period, we have increased the clinical expertise and services available to our residents by expanding coverage at Valley in neurological surgery and thoracic surgery, expanding education and training through the UW emergency medicine residency, standardizing reporting for patient safety and quality, implementing a rapid process improvement program to reduce the costs of care and creating additional access to primary care, secondary care and highly specialized care when needed. 

The coming year should bring expansion to oncology services, cardiology, urology, ophthalmology and several other clinical areas. Being a part of the UW Medicine system allows our physicians to have priority access to specialized care at UW Medicine when a patient needs urgent specialty services such as open heart surgery or organ transplant surgery. 

In addition to the expansion of clinical services, we are working to reduce the overall cost of healthcare and to transform healthcare delivery. The recent Supreme Court decision on healthcare reform validates the concept of integrated delivery systems; a key component is readily available primary care. The combination of VMC’s clinics and UW Medicine’s Neighborhood Clinics has increased access to care in your neighborhoods and access to world class specialists when needed.

Valley Medical Center is committed to continuing the progress we have achieved in the first year of the Strategic Alliance. The shared mission to improve the health of the public has allowed VMC and the rest of UW Medicine to focus on expansion of services and alignment of best practices as we prepare for healthcare reform and the growing needs of our population.

The focus of the Board of Trustees, with eleven trustees living in the service area, is to provide oversight to the delivery of healthcare in our community. We will continue to provide progress reports to let you know when new services are added. Thank you for relying on Valley Medical Center for your healthcare.