HJBR May/Jun 2019

64 MAY / JUN 2019  I  Healthcare Journal of Baton Rouge   Hospital Rounds literacy-rich families.” Lemoine had an idea to address the issue locally and reached out to Dr. Candace Moore, a parent of one of his student’s and an OB/GYN at BRG. “The thought process behind the program was to introduce children to reading from day one, and even better, involve the parents,” said Moore. “As a hospital, we had the perfect opportunity to put this idea into action, and Episcopal coordinated a very successful school-wide book drive to bring Books for Babies to life.” Despite the sobering statistics on the lack of lit- eracy among adults, a new report from Scholas- tic shows a big jump in parents reading to their babies from birth – 43 percent, up from 30 percent in 2014 – further highlighting the importance of programs that increase access to reading. “We received such positive feedback from patients during the program’s first year, and with 50 percent more books collected this year, we anticipate an even greater impact this year,” said Moore. importance of children’s hospitals and the role they play in providing kids with the right care at the right time. Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital is one of 170 member CMN Hospitals across North America that participated in the week-long initiative.  As the local champion, Madisyn will be recog- nized during CMN events across the Baton Rouge region in 2019. She will also have a chance to be selected as one of 10 champions that represent CMN nationally during Children’s Hospital Week in 2020. “Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital is proud to celebrate our 30th year as a partner hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals,” said Danny Fields, senior director of Our Lady of the Lake Foundation. “Through this partnership since 1989, we have been able to collaborate with a national network of corporate fundraising part- ners and implement best-in-class fundraising pro- grams locally to generate vital funds and aware- ness to support our local healthcare initiatives for children across the state of Louisiana so that kids can receive the best healthcare close to home.” Since its founding in 1983, Children’s Miracle Network has raised more than $5 billion, most of this $1 at a time through its Miracle Balloon icon. Woman’s Hospital Welcomes Maternal Fetal Medicine Books for Babies Takes on Louisiana’s Lack of Literacy Baton Rouge General (BRG) and Episcopal School of Baton Rouge have teamed up on a Books for Babies program, giving new families at BRG’s Birth Center a set of books to start their home library. Nationally, one in six adults have less-than- basic literacy, and Louisiana ranks higher than the national average in adults lacking basic liter- acy skills. In addition, children of parents with low literacy skills have a 72 percent chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves, accord- ing to the National Bureau of Economic Research. “Studies show that just over half of children ages three to five are read to daily by a family member,” said Cory Lemoine, a first grade teacher at Epis- copal. “Many parents don’t read to their children because there is little to no access to books in their homes, and we need to intervene to create OLOL Madisyn Duet Baton Rouge General (BRG) and Episcopal School of Baton Rouge have teamed up on a Books for Babies program, giving new families at BRG’s Birth Center a set of books to start their home library. Pictured, from left, are Episcopal’s Cory Lemoine; BRG’s Kelly Kyle; BRG’s Sarah Drennan, MD; and BRG’s Candace Moore, MD, as they visit Episcopal to accept the books, which were gathered through a school-wide book drive.