Neonatal Intensive Care
Merit Health Central's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) provides care for critically ill or premature infants. Our specially trained neonatal care professionals utilize advanced technology, and our NICU is staffed 24 hours a day by highly-specialized neonatal care nurses and doctors who are focused on the needs of newborns and parents.
Merit Health Central's Mother/Baby Program enables you to stay in a room prior to the discharge of your baby, giving you time to learn from the nurses about your baby's special needs and helping you become comfortable with caring for your baby while the nurses are nearby to provide support.
The NICU provides care for:
- Premature infants
- Birth defects and genetic syndromes
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Infections or sepsis
- Kidney disorders
- Major neonatal surgical needs
- Respiratory disorders
Follow-up Care
Merit Health Central provides follow-up evaluations of babies who have left the NICU or newborn nursery and are identified as high-risk. The neonatal follow-up clinic team includes a neonatologist, a neonatal nurse practitioner, a neonatal nurse and a lactation specialist. The child development evaluations are shared with you and your baby's primary physician. All infants with apnea or infants at risk for apnea or SIDS are seen in our apnea clinic for evaluation by the neonatal apnea team. This team consists of physicians and consulting physicians in the fields of pediatrics, neurology, neurosurgery, pulmonary medicine and radiology.
We also include a prenatal nurse educator certified in CPR to instruct parents on how to manage apnea alarms at home and assists parents in dealing with the family adjustments involved with home monitoring.
NICU Transport Team: Making Special Deliveries
Our neonatal transport team moves high-risk premature babies to the neonatal intensive care unit at Merit Health Central. The transport team, consisting of registered nurses, respiratory therapists, and emergency medical technicians, works under the direction of neonatalogists associated with our hospital.