CARMICHAEL, Calif. — It was a project roughly 5 years in the making, and on Wednesday, Mercy San Juan Medical Center officially opened the doors to their newly expanded neonatal intensive care unit.
The $35 million NICU is named after Robert and Starr Pepper, who were generous donors of the project. It spans over 17,000 square feet and is a significant upgrade from the previous NICU built in 1989.
"It is just tremendously exciting because of the fact that over the years we have increased the number of babies that we're able to care for," stated Dr. Robert Kahle, of the NICU.
This NICU features 16 private rooms, eight different three-bed pods, and can accommodate 40 infants. More importantly, it provides much more space for the parents.
"The space and privacy and their ability to attend to and nurture their baby has been less than optical certainly, and by expanding it's going to be able to provide the opportunity to actually care for the parents," stated Dr. Kahle.
This NICU will continue to serve not only all six Dignity hospitals in the Sacramento region but patients in Northern and Central California.
Not one, or two, or three, but 10 nurses in Sutter Medical Center's labor and delivery unit are pregnant. Before the new year, that number was 14! Four of the nurses have given birth in 2019. Make sure to follow ABC10 on YouTube to stay up to date!
