Hospital Opens Intensive Care Unit for Infants
Venturing into a rapidly growing medical field in Ventura County, Community Memorial Hospital on Monday opened a seven-bed intensive care unit for critically ill premature and full-term infants.
The neonatal unit will be run by Dr. Linda Yang and Dr. Jon van Houten. Yang studied at UC San Francisco and UC Irvine. Van Houten received his training at Stanford University. The two doctors will be joined by a staff of more than 40 registered neonatal nurses and 15 respiratory care practitioners, providing 24-hour care to the infants.
“Dr. Yang and Dr. van Houten bring impressive credentials to their assignments and they’ve recruited an outstanding team of physicians and nurses,” said Michael Bakst, the hospital’s executive director.
The unit has a dedicated family room to encourage parental visits, as well as a 24-hour open-door policy for family members. Brothers and sisters of the sick babies--as long as they are 2 or older--can also visit.
Until now, mothers and their high-risk newborns were transferred to Ventura County Medical Center--where there are 30 beds for critically ill infants--or to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard--where there are eight beds for neonatal care. Los Robles in Thousand Oaks also has a 10-bed intensive care unit for newborns.
The intensive care unit at Community Memorial brings the number of neonatal beds in Ventura County to 55, a sum some medical professionals have said is excessive for the local population.
Community Memorial plans to add six more beds to its neonatal unit by the end of the year.
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