The new designation by Georgia's Department of Community Health allows the hospital to establish a four-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
"We expect to start building soon," said Sandra Grady, NICU coordinator. "We have 17 designated Level-II bed and four Level-III beds... but we will be adding ten rooms to our facility."
It also allows high-acuity babies to remain at Northside Hospital-Forsyth rather than be transferred to Northside Hospital in Atlanta to receive Level-III NICU care.
"We can provide a higher level of care to smaller babies, to babies less than 32 weeks gestation without having to transfer them," said Grady.
In addition to expanding its neonatal services, this spring, Northside Hospital-Forsyth plans to open a new four-story, 100,000-square-foot medical office building (MOB), adjacent to the south side of the Women's Center. The MOB will house a variety of physician specialties and practices to support the Women's Center.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2014/1/270241