Individual, specialized care for newborns, with a focus on the entire family, is available at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Saint Joseph's Hospital. We recognize that family members play an important role in the health of their newborn, and therefore encourage them to participate in the care of their child.

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The unit provides state-of-the-art equipment, and a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and other staff to treat newborns who require intensive care. In the years since its opening in 1969, more than 5,000 newborns have been cared for. The unit continues to provide skilled, comprehensive care and family services which don't end when baby goes home.

Services
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has access to 24-hour comprehensive services provided by Saint Joseph's Hospital, Marshfield Clinic, their Joint Venture Laboratory and the Marshfield Medical Research Foundation. These specialized services help the staff give individualized nursing care, based on the needs of baby and family.

Click here to view the virtual tour of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

While many of the infants on the unit are born at Saint Joseph's Hospital, others are brought here, either by ambulance or emergency air transport via Spirit of Marshfield, from throughout a 26-county region. A specially trained team of nurses, therapists and emergency medical personnel are available 24 hours a day to transport infants in need of intensive care services.

The physician specialists and nurses on the unit keep in close contact with home-town family physicians, both during and after the baby's stay. Twenty-four hour phone consultation with physicians is available, and the staff make daily phone contact with the parents for progress updates.

Special efforts are made to accommodate the family while the infant is on the unit. The Ronald McDonald House, located across St. Joseph Avenue, provides homelike, temporary living quarters for parents. Other lodging also is available nearby.

Parents can visit baby anytime, and there are special arrangements for brothers and sisters. Infant care areas can also be personalized, using toys, balloons or other items. All parents receive individualized discharge instructions when baby is ready to go home and can room-in with baby before discharge. They also may wish to arrange for public health/hospital home health agency services.

Equipment and Facilities
The state-of-the-art equipment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is specially designed to care for critically ill infants. Equipment ranges from more sophisticated items, such as specialized infant monitors and intravenous pumps, to more time-honored approaches, such as rocking chairs and taped lullabies.

Located next door to the The Birth Center, the NICU facilities offer a spacious, cheerful care setting, private consultation rooms, and a pre-discharge rooming-in suite. The unit has been planned to provide the latest in sophisticated intensive care services, in a soft, quiet setting that is responsive to parent and infant needs.