Cincinnati Children’s is busy constructing a critical care building on its main campus set to open in late 2021. The new building will be designated as Location G—in keeping with the medical center’s easy-to-navigate alphabetical naming conventions—and will add 632,500 square feet and 249 new beds.

The Perinatal Institute team is excited about this expansion because the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is growing from 75 to 85 beds. “We have experienced tremendous growth in inpatient days and increased complexity of our patients, which drives high demand for ICU beds,” says James Greenberg, MD, co-director of the Perinatal Institute and lead physician executive for the critical care building project.

Currently located in Location B, the NICU will retain its existing space and also expand into Location G. A connector will bridge the two so all neonatology services will remain together, including the NICU’s custom-built MRI. The new NICU will feature larger, private rooms; acoustical properties appropriate for optimizing brain development in babies; and special lighting to support circadian development in infants.

The Cincinnati Fetal Center in Location B, adjacent to the NICU, will be renovated to house two operating rooms, a C-section room and nine labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum (LDRP) rooms.

“This is going to be a huge step forward for us in terms of our ability to optimize the outcomes for our patients,” Greenberg says. “It will also foster the collaboration and multidisciplinary care that are essential to successfully taking care of this patient population.”

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