Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU now has more space for the region’s tiniest patients.
The newly expanded neonatal intensive care unit, located on the fourth floor of the 2-year-old 16-story Children’s Tower, will begin welcoming its first patients in January. The new 20-bed facility with single-family rooms will complement the 40-bed NICU located in the VCU Medical Center Critical Care Hospital, which is next to the labor and delivery unit.
All of the rooms will have sleeping space and a private bathroom for the infant’s parents or guardians, and two of the new rooms will be able to accommodate twins. The unit will also feature a family lounge and a quiet room for the families to use during their stay.
The expansion will allow CHoR, a Level 4 NICU that offers the highest level of care available for premature and full-term babies with critical needs, the ability to care for babies born not only at VCU but regionally.
Dr. Russell Moores, CHoR medical director and professor of pediatrics, said the expansion will alleviate the stress of trying to find space to support babies.
“In the past, we’ve had to delay transfers and be a bit more creative in finding the space when the other NICU units in the region are full,” he said. “Up until now, since we are the only Level 4 unit in the region, we have been at a bottleneck, and this expansion will allow us to take care of more babies simultaneously. When we don’t have to move patients around as we have had to do in the past, it really helps with family satisfaction because families are an important member of our care team, too.”
In fact, the push in the last decade to involve the families in the care of the baby on a daily basis has had a positive impact on the babies.
“For example, the benefit of kangaroo care — skin to skin contact — is important,” he said. “Even these sick tiny babies can have skin to skin on Mom or Dad’s chest. Getting the families involved has been a big change throughout the years and has helped improve outcomes.”
Final rendering of the newly expanded neonatal intensive care unit located in Children’s Tower
While some babies may only require help in the unit for a week or two, others may be there for months. The families can stay in the room with their baby, then have access to the doctors, specialists and case workers who make the daily rounds.
“It’s essential for the families to be able to have these interactions,” he said, “because they are with their baby the most.”
Dr. Moores said the average number of admissions to the unit has doubled in the 16 years he has been at the hospital. He attributes the higher rate of admissions to the area’s increased population, as well as the advances made in medication and technology.
“The way we use ventilators, do IV nutrition, cardiac management, surgical procedures and the tools used to perform them — it has advanced treatment and affected outcomes tremendously,” he said. “One of the biggest things we are seeing now is that it’s commonplace for big units like this to be able to resuscitate the tiniest of babies. The tiny equipment that is available to work on these tiny kids nowadays is unbelievable. When you take a step back and think about it, it’s pretty amazing. There are just so many things we can do now that we just dreamt about 30-plus years ago.”
For CHoR and Dr. Moores, the dream has finally become a reality.
To learn more about how you can support the NICU expansion, or CHoR, please visit campaign.chrichmond.org.
