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Slugfest goes to bat for Women's Center
Hospital able to buy newborn simulator
center WEB
Lydia Woltering, clinician at Northside Hospital-Forsyth Womens Center, demonstrates the newborn simulators lifelike heartbeat to Slugfest Tournament co-chairman Jeff Stephens. - photo by For the Forsyth County News

 

Organizers of an annual Forsyth County baseball tournament recently made a sizable donation to the Women’s Center at Northside Hospital-Forsyth.

Forsyth County Slugfest Tournament committee members donated more than $10,000, which was used to buy an interactive newborn simulator called SimNewB.

The simulator is used by the more than 180 nurses and technicians in the Women’s Center for training purposes, which can lead to improved neonatal care during critical cases.

In a statement, Northside Hospital-Forsyth Administrator Lynn Jackson expressed gratitude to the Slugfest organizers.

“Our Women’s Center … has grown by leaps and bounds in the three years since it has been open and we are excited about all of the opportunities to expand the state-of-the-art maternity care to our patients,” Jackson said.

Lydia Woltering, clinical education coordinator at the hospital, said it is rare for a facility as new as Northside-Forsyth’s Women’s Center to have training equipment as advanced as the SimNewB.

“The mannequin’s realistic traits and lifelike clinical feedback allow us to train in real time, critical care scenarios, so that we will be prepared for any situation that comes our way and can ensure our patients that they are in the very best hands,” she said in a statement.

The Slugfest is held each March, benefitting various local charities. In the last five years, it has raised more than $110,000 for several nonprofits in the county.

In 2011, the tournament attracted nearly 250 baseball teams and raised more than $23,000.

Tournament organizers recently visited the Women’s Center to see the simulator in action.

“At Slugfest, we’ve always liked to think that our donations were going to good causes, but it was really amazing to visit Northside and see specifically what our efforts earned for the community,” said Brian Gould, treasurer of the tournament.