Bergan Mercy Medical Center is set up to handle the most complicated and high-risk situations with a perinatologist available for high-risk pregnancies. A perinatal unit is maintained at Bergan Mercy to stabilize mothers at risk for premature labor. The medical center also has a new Level III neonatal intensive care unit, with all of the advanced technology necessary to care for premature or sick babies.

The redesigned Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is now open for patients at Alegent Health Bergan Mercy Medical Center. The opening marks one of the first phases to be completed during the facility's ongoing renovation and expansion project.

The newly remodeled and expanded area has all the advanced technology necessary to care for extremely premature infants as well as a setting designed to promote newborn growth and development. The design of the Level III NICU incorporates the most recent research regarding early neonatal development, which shows that the stress of bright lights, continuous activity and high noise levels of a NICU can create detrimental effects on an infant's short-term and long-term development. The new unit includes indirect lighting, special sound absorbing building materials, and comfortable family interaction areas to allow family privacy and encourage infant /parent bonding.

"What we have now truly reflects the best and latest information on how a unit like this should be put together," said Joan Neuhaus, Alegent Health vice president for women's and children's services. "We have all the most up to date technology needed to care for these tiniest of patients, but I'm also proud to say that the importance of family has been incorporated into the design, as well."

Each individual bed station now is its own little "house." Each bed is nestled within a headboard fashioned in the shape of a house, and includes spaces for personal items such as sibling pictures, extra clothing, messages for baby, or a favorite teddy bear.

The unit, now a Level III NICU, also features a multi-disciplinary team of four board certified neonatologists; round the clock coverage by neonatal nurse practitioners, who attend all high risk deliveries and manage the care of the newborns; specially trained, experienced nurses who provide compassionate individualized care; and respiratory therapists trained in NICU ventilation techniques. A complete range of diagnostic and therapeutic services are available including pediatric radiology, laboratory and pharmacy.