9300 Valley Children's Place
Madera, California 93638-8762
T: 559.353.3000
F: 559.353.7109
www.childrenscentralcal.org
N E W S R E L E A S E
No. 008069
Media Information:
Micheline Golden
Children’s Hospital First in California to Offer Private NICU Rooms
Madera, CA (October 17, 2008) – Today Children’s Hospital Central California debuted its new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit expansion featuring private rooms, a first in California. Now parents of Children’s NICU patients will be able to remain at their premature baby’s bedside throughout their stay, bonding and participating in their care.
“This is truly a huge step forward in NICU care,” said Beverly Hayden-Pugh, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Children’s Hospital Central California. “It’s such a win-win situation. Parents are better able to bond with their babies. Nurses can involve parents in their child’s care. It benefits everyone involved. We are very excited to be the first hospital in California to offer these rooms for patients and their families.”
This expansion of Children’s NICU includes 21 private and 2 semi-private rooms. The semi-private rooms house two babies and can be used for parents who have twins. Each room has a private bathroom, a sleeping couch for parents, and full equipment to care for a premature infant. The rooms provide parents with privacy and comfort not always found in a standard NICU.
Coming and going from a standard NICU can sometimes be physically difficult for a mother who has just given birth. The private rooms with the ability to sleep-in offer a level of comfort that encourages mothers to stay longer at their child’s bedside. This helps to develop and support parent/child bonding by providing an environment where the baby and parents can interact like they would at home. The private rooms also eliminate some of the interruptions that visiting hours, shift changes, or proximity to other parents can provide.
Children’s focus on treating not just the child, but the family as a whole made these new rooms a natural addition. “This unique concept allows parents to stay with their newborn so they can partner in the care of their child,” said William F. Haug, President and CEO of Children’s Hospital. “It enhances our focus on family-centered care by building upon our recognition that parents are not just visitors but an extension of the care team.”
As the only Regional Level III NICU between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, Children’s provides a standard of subspecialty care not available at any other hospital in Central California. This expansion brings the total NICU bed count to 104, giving Children’s Hospital Central California more neonatal capacity than any other general or children’s hospital in California.
Children’s NICU provides 24 hour coverage by board certified neonatologists with consultations from medical and surgical subspecialists. In addition, care is provided by NICU nurses that are part of the broader Children’s Nursing team that has just been re-designated with the distinguished Magnet Nursing Award. Children’s was the first hospital west of the Rockies in 2004 to receive this award and is the only hospital in the Central Valley to hold this coveted designation. Children’s NICU supports almost 1,000 neonatal cases and cares for 20,000 patient days annually.
Children’s outcomes with neonates under 1,500 grams is consistently better than other Level III centers in the state. Their adjusted mortality rate for this population is 9.2% compared to a 12.2% California average. Children’s ‘case-mix index’ (a number that compares the severity of different populations), is the fourth highest of all 37 NICUs in a nationally comparative database. In other words, on average, the babies that come to Children’s are more seriously ill than those that come to 33 of the other NICUs, and yet they have better results than all of their regional peers.
California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi was on hand to help open the new unit. Lt. Governor Garamendi and former Children’s Hospital NICU patient Lucy Larios pushed an Isolette bed through a pink and blue ribbon into one of the new rooms to celebrate the opening. The new unit is expected to start housing patients in the beginning of November.
Photos from the opening event can be downloaded here.
About Children’s Hospital
We are a not-for-profit, state-of-the-art children’s hospital on a 50-acre campus with a Medical Staff of more than 450 Physicians. In California, we treat more inpatient kids than any pediatric hospital north of San Diego, making us the second largest children’s hospital in the state. Our 315 bed facility is one of the 10 largest hospitals of its type in the nation. We serve kids in a 45,000 square-mile region that stretches from Stockton to Bakersfield and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
We are the first Children's hospital west of the Rockies to receive Magnet Nursing designation, the highest nursing benchmark in the world. We are accredited by the Joint Commission and we are very proud to have won the LeapFrog Group’s national award for Patient Safety two years in a row.
We perform more than 9,000 pediatric surgeries a year and our Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units have some of the lowest mortality rates in the country while treating some of the sickest kids.
Our Craycroft Cancer Center is a full member of the nationally-recognized Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and sees more than 100 new cases a year. Our Willson Heart Center has pioneered pediatric heart care for half a century.
We are the premiere pediatric medical center in the heart of the Golden State. We are Children’s Hospital Central California - Amazing People, Incredible Care.
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