Area Service Centers (ASC) 

What is a Newborn Screening Area Service Center?

The goal of the California Newborn Screening (NBS) Program is to prevent the long-term effects of disease through early identification and treatment. Area Service Centers, designated by the Genetic Disease Screening Program (GDSP) of the California Department of Public Health, facilitate prompt diagnosis and treatment of infants identified by screening to be at risk of having one of the screened for disorders.

There are seven centers located in California: Kaiser Permanente No. Cal., Kaiser Permanente So. Cal., Stanford University Medical Center, Children's Hospital Central California, UCLA, Harbor/UCLA and Rady Children's Hospital San Diego. These ASCs are geographically assigned to specific perinatal facilities, health care professionals, county public health departments, and screening laboratories.

What are the Area Service Centers' primary responsibilities?

• Reporting to the babies' health care providers the required or recommended follow-up on all screening referrals: inadequate specimens, positive results, untested newborns, and those who are screened too early; and tracking the progress of the follow-up.
• Providing consultation and technical assistance to all NBS Program participants.
• Providing training and educational activities to all participants and the community.
• Monitoring NBS participants for compliance with state newborn screening regulations and guidelines. 

How can an Area Service Centers lend a hand?

• ASCs assist health care providers in completing the necessary follow-up for their NBS referrals such as, verifying the family's contact information, arranging for further required testing, arranging for county public health assistance, and referring babies to special care centers.
• ASCs answer questions related to the NBS Program regulations and policies as determined by the GDSP.
• ASCs verify the NBS status of a newborn.
• ASCs conduct site visits to their assigned facilities to review newborn screening practices by meeting with representatives from the involved departments.
• ASCs give NBS in-service presentations for the nursing, laboratory, or medical records (HIM, HIS) department staff. They participate in other training activities as requested.
• ASCs arrange for duplicate results mailers to be sent when requested by health care providers or perinatal facilities.
• ASCs provide information about ordering NBS forms and educational materials. 

What are Area Service Centers not responsible for?

• The ASC is not a screening laboratory. Please send your NBS filter paper specimens to your designated screening laboratory.
• The ASC is not affiliated with JCAHO. Our facility visits function as informative meetings to review newborn screening practices and to update facilities about recent program changes. 

How to contact an Area Service Center:

HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER
PHONE: 310-222-3751
FAX: 310-320-8740
Email: newbornscreening@lundquist.org

UCLA
PHONE: 310-826-4458
FAX: 310-826-7638
Email: newbornscreening@mednet.ucla.edu

RADY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL SAN DIEGO
PHONE: 858-966-8708
FAX: 858-966-8709
Email: nbs@rchsd.org

VALLEY CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE
PHONE: 559-353-6416
FAX: 559-353-6403
Email: ASC96@valleychildrens.org

STANFORD UNIVERSITY
PHONE: 650-724-8120
FAX: 650-725-1460
Email: newbornscreening@stanford.edu

NORTHERN CA KAISER PERMANENTE
PHONE: 510-752-6192
FAX: 510-752-6921
Email: newbornscreening@kp.org

SOUTHERN CA KAISER PERMANENTE
PHONE: 844-343-9372
FAX: 844-343-9373
Email: newbornscreeningSCAL@kp.org

For more information visit the Genetic Disease Screening Program.