Patricia Pirkle, a 38-year Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurse with Franciscan Health Crown Point, explains the services offered by the hospital’s newly expanded Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, during a recent open house program that drew some 100 guests to tours of expansions of the obstetrics department.
During a more than two-year project, the NICU increased to 20 beds, from 12, while the labor and delivery and postpartum area grew to 19 labor and delivery rooms and 23 post-partum rooms. The NICU has neonatologists on hand 24/7. Its Level III designation means the hospital can provide specialized care that eliminates the need to transfer a child to another hospital. Among its new services is a transporter program that brings neonatal transports from referring hospitals. The NICU likewise has initiated a donor milk program for babies whose mothers cannot provide breast milk. The expanded obstetrics unit offers 24/7 obstetrician coverage, along with a second C-section suite that eliminates the need for the procedure to be done in operating rooms, located elsewhere in the hospital, and allows mother and baby to be together through the process, which enhances bonding.