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Still Work To Be Done
Jeff Mullin, Enid News & Eagle
We've come a long way in infant care, but we have a long way to go
The news was not good. According to a federal study, Oklahoma was among 17 southern states with the lowest survival rates for infants and newborns.
That upset Dr. John Province, a veteran Enid pediatrician, and spurred him to action.
So Provine joined in an effort by the Oklahoma medical community to adopt a perinatal continuing education program developed at the University of Virginia.
Since then, more than 1,325 doctors and 7,310 nurses have gone through Perinatal Continuing Education Program offered by St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, Norman Regional Medical Center and Comanche County Memorial Hospital. Participants in PCEP must complete written examinations and skills demonstrations.
In all, doctors and nurses completed 15,600 hours of PCEP training in 2003 alone.
Today, the news is much better. It is estimated medical professionals who have gone through PCEP training have delivered some 162,000 healthy infants in Oklahoma.
Infant mortality rates fell 23 percent, from 9.6 percent in 1991 to 7.4 percent in 2001, according to the March of Dimes. In addition, infant deaths due to birth defects dropped from 219.9 per 100,000 live births in 1996 to 171.1 in 2001.
Not only does the PCEP program enable medical professionals to gain new knowledge and skills, it also has helped enhance communication between doctors and nurses, who take the training together.
Oklahoma's babies and their mothers now get better, more effective perinatal care, thanks to the efforts of physicians like Dr. Provine.
"Enid ought to know what the medical community has accomplished," he said.
We applaud the efforts of those involved with PCEP training and the improvements in perinatal care that have been accomplished as a result.
But there is more work to be done. In 2000, Oklahoma ranked 41st in the nation in terms of providing adequate prenatal care and 43rd in infant mortality.
The numbers have gotten better, but they still are not good enough. PCEP training, however, is an important step in the right direction.
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