USC Verdugo Hills officials celebrate impending arrival of new addition to local hospital
For decades, moms-to-be considering delivering their babies at Verdugo Hills Hospital faced a difficult dilemma — since the community hospital had no neonatal intensive care nursery, babies requiring extra care would be dispatched to other hospitals while moms stayed put.
Come September, that dilemma will be no more. On Tuesday, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital doctors, nurses and administrators gathered to break virtual ground on a new 3,100-square-foot, state-of-the-art NICU that will include six individual patient rooms, a lactation area and a new nurses station.
“This day has been a long time coming,” hospital chief executive Keith Hobbs said at the ceremony. “The absence of a NICU as been something of great need for this hospital. It’s been a top priority for me to bring this here.”
The $2.5-million renovation of what was previously the hospital’s eighth-floor critical care unit (reconsolidated to another area) will accommodate multiple newborns, and new NICVIEW Web cameras will let moms and family members see babies in real time during their stay.
“Even if a baby stays and the mom goes home, they can watch from home how their baby is doing any time of the day,” said pediatrician Happy Khanna, who’s worked at the facility for nearly 30 years.
Khanna said she’s often called in when deliveries become complicated and has to oversee the transfer of neonatal intensive care cases to nearby hospitals like Glendale Adventist, Pasadena’s Huntington Hospital or Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
The addition of the NICU at USC Verdugo Hills will keep babies, mothers and families connected and let them stay in their local community hospital.
“Moms just feel so much more comfortable if they’re under the same roof as their babies,” Khanna said.
Kenny Pawlek, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said some staff members are in the process of getting the training they’ll need on the floor, while qualified personnel from inside the USC Keck Medicine system will be brought in as well.
The unit will be able to admit mothers of twins who might deliver before their due date, higher-risk deliveries and women whose pregnancy is 32 weeks along or more.
“It’s been an idea that’s been around for a long time, and with USC acquiring the hospital there are more funds to invest in it and more personnel to staff it,” Pawlek said. “This really closes a gap for communities in need.”
Twitter: @SaraCardine
