Tiny Babies Get Big New Space

Board Chair Robert Melzer, DeWayne Pursley, M.D., donor Beth Klarman, President Paul Levy and Jane Foley, R.N.C., B.S.N., M.A., cut the ribbon at the NICU's May 6 open house. "We're going to have to strap on our roller skates!" Pursley joked as he surveyed the 16,000 square foot NICU.

May 7 marked a big day for BIDMC’s littlest patients with the opening of the new Klarman Family Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The expanded NICU will allow BIDMC’s caring, knowledgeable staff to treat many more newborns in a setting that offers comfort and privacy for families — part of BIDMC’s ongoing commitment to help its new arrivals not only survive, but thrive.

“The NICU program has grown by 45 percent in the past five years alone, so we needed more room,” says DeWayne Pursley, M.D., chief of neonatology. “When the adult ICUs moved to our west campus, it left us with this great opportunity to improve upon and expand a very successful program. We pulled together capital funding from a number of sources, including some one-time state money…We anticipate that we’ll be able to keep a number of babies that we’ve previously had to transfer out for lack of beds, so opening this NICU represents not only a continued commitment to good care, it also makes good business sense.”

Located on Reisman 9, the new NICU incorporates the former Stoneman 10 NICU and Stoneman 8 NICU-TCU into one spacious unit containing 34 licensed beds, with the potential to expand capacity to 46 beds. New features include improved baby monitoring capabilities and sound and light control, along with floor-to-ceiling windows that provide more natural light to patient care areas.

NICU staff spent weeks carefully planning a smooth transition that would ensure the babies’ care remained uninterrupted, and doubled their staffing levels on the move day to keep the new and old units open and running. “The move took a lot of hard work on the part of our staff, but we’ve now matured into this new unit, and we’re all very excited about the care we can provide here,” says Jane Foley, R.N.C, B.S.N., M.A., director of operations for critical care, cardiology, and women and newborn services.

With 24 one- and two-bed patient rooms, the unit’s family-centered design also provides greater privacy. Three family rooms, a private consultation office and a large family waiting area offer convenience for babies’ visiting family members. A family resource room includes a library and computer workstations with Internet capabilities, including access to Baby CareLink, a NICU family support Web site developed by BIDMC staff. “We will be able to make babies’ families more comfortable and give them more privacy at one of the most stressful times they will probably ever experience,” Pursley says.

The decade-old NICU program will continue as a tertiary site for newborns and families throughout the region. It also will serve as the central clinical site for the department of neonatology’s extensive clinical and health services research program, and as a training site for the clinicians who will continue the NICU’s tradition of helping tiny babies grow.

- Karnika Haridoss



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