'Micropreemie' Unit Opens

A large group of people gathered to celebrate the opening of a unit dedicated to the tiniest of patients.

Alex Kalliokoski, Joann Bergrud, and Bob Herrington, North Star Community Credit Union.

By Sanford Health

Sanford Children’s hosted a ribbon cutting event for the Credit Unions for Kids Micropreemie Unit in Fargo. The new unit features four rooms and six beds dedicated to the care of babies born before 26 weeks or weighing fewer than 28 ounces.
 
“Today was an amazing day, to make sure that these smallest of small children have a great chance and that the parents are well taken care of during a stressful time as well,” said Bob Herrington, president and CEO of North Star Community Credit Union.
 
Care closer to home
Prior to the opening, micropreemie babies were treated alongside other babies in the NICU. About one in 10 babies is born premature, which is defined as less than 37 weeks of gestation.
 
This new unit customizes everything to the specific needs of micropreemies, which includes babies born as early as 22 weeks, and weighing as little as 13 oz. Fewer than 1% of babies are born as micropreemies. Doctors like neonatologist Mohamed Mohamed, M.D., help micropreemies not only survive, but be set up for full, healthy lives.
 
“Taking care of premature babies can be very challenging. They can suffer from serious complications of prematurity. This unit will represent the best we can offer, based on having a designated space to tailor the needs of micropreemies to have the best neurodevelopmental outcomes,” said Dr. Mohamed.
 
Having specialized care in Fargo also keeps local families from having to travel even longer distances during an already difficult time. Especially since some micropreemies can spend more than 100 days in the hospital.
 
“We are headquartered in Maddock, North Dakota. Very small town,” said Herrington, whose credit union is three hours away from Fargo. “We’ve had multiple premature babies who have had to travel over the years. Lots of stories about that from our small community there. This is closer, it’s less disruptive for the families during a time when they need just one thing to be a little less stressful and a little bit less disruptive.”
 
‘People helping people’
The donation of $500,000 for the new unit was made by a cooperative of 20 credit unions across the Dakotas in partnership with Children’s Miracle Network and Sanford Health Foundation. To representatives of these institutions, the grand opening of the new unit showed the power of community.
 
“Our DNA is people helping people, and we’ve had a long relationship with CMN hospitals going back almost 50 years. So this was just a no-brainer for the credit unions of the Dakotas to support,” said Jeff Olson, president and CEO of the Dakota Credit Union Association. “Do we compete against each other? We sure do, but we also help each other out as well. So we came in here as a unit with one project in mind, and that was to give back to our community, and help families and give them hope.”

Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the United States, is dedicated to transforming the health care experience and providing access to world-class health care in America’s heartland. Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the organization has 53,000 employees and serves over 2 million patients and nearly 425,000 health plan members across the upper Midwest, including South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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