Cabell Huntington Hospital

An expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) will also call the five-story, $85 million North Patient Tower home, creating a state-of-the-art space that will improve on the already acclaimed intensive care unit for sick and premature infants.
   
The changes for the NICU are at least 12 years in the making.
“We renovated once before, re-did some things and upgraded what we could, but we were limited because it was just a renovation,” said Gerry Thompson, interim nurse manager of LDR and a 24-year veteran of Cabell Huntington Hospital. “Here, with our move, there is so much room and so many more possibilities for us and the way we care for our patients.”
   
Women and Children’s Services Director Amy Smith said the changes will increase comfort and take care to another level.

“It truly is a hotel-like setting. You just can’t believe how beautiful and how
spacious the rooms are until you see them,” she said. “The LDR will be almost twice the size of what we currently have, and the NICU is tripling in area. The care and thought that went into planning this to accommodate babies and their families is truly remarkable.”

Labor, Delivery and Recovery
With about 2,600 deliveries each year, a high level of competence and care at Cabell Huntington Hospital has always been a priority.

With the addition of the North Patient Tower, the facilities will enhance the quality of every patient’s experience.
   
The Labor, Delivery and Recovery floor, housed on the North Patient Tower’s third floor, will increase the number of labor rooms from 11 to 18. Each of those rooms has been designed to be more hotel-like and less hospital-esque.
   
“For starters, the rooms are just bigger. They all have large, almost floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s a lounge area in the room where family members can stay and be more comfortable. Each room has a flat screen television, and the bathrooms are also much nicer,” Thompson explained.
   
The rooms are also fully equipped with all the necessary equipment and supplies for mother and baby.
   
Outside of the private rooms, the floor features new cesarean section delivery rooms and multiple nurses’ stations, as well as team stations. Other additions include NICU areas at each end of the building, if needed, to care for babies for a short period before making the trip via a dedicated elevator to the new NICU on the fifth floor, and six private triage rooms – up from four in the current facility. The floor will also include dedicated recovery rooms for patients recovering from general anesthesia.
Additionally, visitors to the Labor, Delivery and Recovery Unit will notice a change up front – a more established entrance, with waiting rooms both inside and outside the LDR doors.
   
“It will be a more closed area with an entrance,” Thompson said. “It’s just one more way to make our families feel secure and protected.”
   
While the LDR and NICU will move jointly into the new building in mid-November, a walkway will bridge the gap between the old hospital and the new, with both departments using a combination of the old
and new.
   
“The current plan is for the LDR and NICU to completely vacate their current spaces and for the Mother/Baby Unit to remain in its existing space. There are plans to renovate and update that area also,” Thompson explained.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
The biggest change to infant care at Cabell Huntington Hospital will come in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
   
“The current NICU is more a ward-type setting with 29 beds in one big room,” said Smith, whose career started in the NICU. “What we are moving to is all private rooms or semi-private rooms, which can be used for twins and other multiples. The NICU is also gaining more beds, as well, moving up to 36.”
   
The new NICU rooms have not only been designed to be more aesthetically pleasing, but also more physically and developmentally appropriate for babies and their families.
   
“The new rooms all have natural lighting, a lot more privacy and an area for the parents to rest,” Smith said. “The real advantage of these rooms, though, is the decrease in noise from the ward-style setting and a greater bonding opportunity for parents and baby.”
   
The move from one room with multiple babies to each baby in his or her own room represents a complete shift in the doctrine of NICU care.
   
“It’s the single largest practice change of anybody moving into the North Patient Tower. The medical director of the unit and our CEO, Brent Marsteller, invested a lot of time and energy talking with other CEOs and hospital staffs to make sure this was the philosophy we wanted to adopt.”
   
Research is showing, according to Smith, that private rooms are very advantageous for the development of preemies – who require less oxygen, gain weight more quickly and have a decreased hospital stay as a result.
   
“So much of our focus on premature babies is on underdeveloped lungs, but we’re learning now that focusing on the brain is equally important, and the surroundings are a huge part of that,” Smith said.
   
Outside the NICU rooms, parents will have access to a family area with a washer and dryer and kitchenette, as well as a computer area and television.
   
Nurses in the NICU are tripling their space, with four nurses’ stations to attend to the needs of the more than 700 admissions each year.
    
Though separated by the fourth floor, both the LDR and the NICU will still work seamlessly with the creation of a designated elevator that runs only between the two floors.
   
“We’ve been so used to being cramped up and close together, this is going to be  a wonderful change for everyone involved,” Smith said. “The way this was designed – through the eyes of the nurses, the doctors, the  parents and the babies – is going to really benefit our staff, our families and the community as a whole.”