Our NICU is the place our families trust and other local hospitals transfer babies they’re not equipped to treat, providing the highest level of care. With the expansion of our NICU into the Children’s Tower, we can take care of even more critically ill and premature babies.

There are four levels of neonatal intensive care when it comes to treating the youngest and tiniest patients.

Here’s how they break down:

• Level I: Well-baby nursery can provide basic care for healthy and full-term babies and will stabilize sick newborns for transfer to a higher-level facility if needed.

• Level II: Special care nursery can treat moderately ill or premature babies, typically born between 32-36 weeks, needing limited respiratory support or IV fluids, recovering from serious conditions.
• Level III: NICU or intensive care nursery offers critical care for very premature infants born before 32 weeks or those with severe illnesses. It can provide advanced respiratory support, pediatric subspecialities and life support.
• Level IV: Regional NICU that provides care for the most complex cases, including the highest levels of lung and heart care and has on-site surgical capabilities for the most severe medical conditions. Level IV NICUs can also care for babies at the lowest age of viability, or micro preemies, and have 24/7 access to subspecialists.

The advances in medication and technology used by our Level IV NICU are cutting-edge and our providers are proud to be able to provide the best possible care for babies across central Virginia.

“The way we use ventilators, IV nutrition, cardiac management, surgical procedures and the tools used to perform them have advanced treatment and outcomes tremendously,” explained Dr. Russell Moores, our NICU’s medical director. “In a Level 4 NICU, it’s now commonplace to be able to resuscitate the tiniest of babies. There are so many things we can do now that we just dreamed about just a few decades ago.”

Read about what our NICU expansion means for families in Central Virginia and beyond.