Thousands of Babies Welcomed Each Year at St. Luke S Health System

Record Breakers Thousands of Babies Welcomed Each Year at St. Luke’s Health System

Focus has its advantages.

Case in point is St. Luke’s Health System in Sioux City, Iowa.

Women’s and children’s health have been a primary focus at the medical center for years. St. Luke’s is a Level II referral hospital for neonatal care, serving an area that stretches 80 miles in all directions including portions of Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.

What’s more, it is the only facility in Iowa to carry the designation of a “Spirit of Women” hospital. Spirit of Women is a national hospital network dedicated to providing innovative health programs and events to educate, entertain and move women.

Three years ago, St. Luke’s completed a significant expansion and renovation of its birthing center, adding more birthing suites as well as a dedicated floor for its state-of- the-art neonatal intensive care unit.

Area residents know St. Luke’s is the place to have a baby. Although there has been no population increase, the hospital is home to a record-breaking number of births for three years running.

“In 2005, 75 percent of area families chose St. Luke’s for their deliveries,” says Ronda Keenan, Director of Women’s, Children’s and Behavioral Health Services for St. Luke’s. “By January of this year, we saw that number grow to 82 percent.”

Keenan credits the staff, as well as the facility for the unprecedented growth. “The staff is our differentiator,” Keenan says. “They are the reason that a record breaking 2,100 babies were born here last year.”

Sidebar: Not to be Missed... When first-time mom Sara Karpuk went into labor four days before her due date, there was just one complication. Her husband, U.S. Army Capt. Tommy Karpuk, was still en route from his military base in Iraq. Had he not been able to get there, the couple was reassured that he wouldn’t miss the blessed event.

“He made it on time, but had it been necessary, Tom could have viewed the delivery via Web cam from Iraq,” Sara says. “The hospital understood this was a momentous occasion for us and every person we came in contact with was caring and compassionate.”

The floor nurses shed tears of joy along with Sara when Capt. Karpuk arrived, still in uniform, for the delivery of the couple’s healthy 9-pound baby boy. “We would recommend St. Luke’s to anyone,” Sara says. For more information, visit www.stlukes.org/newmoms or contact Ronda Keenan, Director of Women’s, Children’s and Behavioral Health Services for St. Luke’s, at [email protected] or (712) 279- 3555.