Effective July 30, 2020, UK HealthCare's Kentucky Children's Hospital (KCH) will partner with HCA Healthcare's Frankfort Regional Medical Center (FRMC) to assume management of the FRMC Level II neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
KCH neonatologist Prasad Bhandary will be the medical director of the four-bed NICU, and ten other neonatologists from KCH will be credentialed to serve Frankfort's tiniest patients.
"We are thrilled to partner with the staff at Frankfort Regional," said Dr. Bhandary. "It's important that families stay close to home for care, and we're honored the leadership at Frankfort Regional entrusts us with the care of their most vulnerable patients."
"We are proud to team up with KCH to provide NICU care for the communities we serve," said Reed Hammond, FRMC chief executive officer. "We feel that this partnership provides our patients the best care available while keeping them close to home."
Vital services for premature babies such as tests for prematurity of retinopathy, a condition in which a newborn's eyes are underdeveloped, will be conducted by UK HealthCare ophthalmologists, and other tests, such as echocardiograms and electrocardiograms, will be sent to physicians at UK for review.