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John Muir Health Selected as Hearing Coordination Center
Walnut Creek - The California Department of Health Care Services has awarded John Muir Health the contract to manage the Hearing Coordination Center (HCC) for the California Newborn Hearing Screening Program. The John Muir Health HCC is one of three such centers statewide.
The contract for the Bay Area was originally awarded to John Muir Health in July 2005 and was expanded to include all of Northern California in October 2007. This expansion involves 45 counties, 120 hospitals with perinatal units and monitoring an excess of 220,000 births annually across California.
Mandated by the California State Legislature, the goals of the Newborn Hearing Screening Program include screening of infants by one month, identification of hearing loss by three months, and early intervention, if needed, by six months.
Permanent significant hearing loss is the most common congenital condition for which there is a screening program. It is estimated that the Newborn Hearing Screening Program will identify 1,200 infants statewide with hearing loss each year.
"It is important that these infants are identified early so that we can help their families get the access they need to the programs that can help," says Beth Lannon, director of the HCC at John Muir Health. "Early intervention is key. And recent research shows that infants with hearing loss, who have appropriate diagnosis, treatment and early intervention services initiated before six months of age, are likely to develop normal language and communication skills."
The HCC provides tracking and monitoring of infants who need follow-up hearing testing after discharge and provides advocacy and support for families of infants who have been diagnosed with hearing loss. In addition to monitoring the screening status of infants in Northern California, the HCC provides community outreach and education to physicians, county and state public health programs and agencies that provide support to families with infants who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Other HCC centers are located in Long Beach and Loma Linda. The John Muir Health HCC is staffed with three audiologists, two registered nurses and one clerk. The office is located in Pleasant Hill. For more information, call (925) 941-7933. For information about the California Newborn Hearing Screening Program, visit http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/Pages/Hearing.aspx
(Posted February 29, 2008)