St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-Siena Campus Opens Expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

HENDERSON, Nev. — Dignity Health’s St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-Siena Campus recently expanded its Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and it now houses a total of 26 bays with advanced technology for medically fragile infants.

In addition to the 11 new beds, the vibrant and colorful 4,400-square-foot NICU features an abundance of natural sunlight via tube sky lights at the nurses’ station. The expanded facilities now include:

• Isolation Negative Pressure Room with whole-body cooling capabilities
• Nesting suite where moms and dads can practice the parenting and caregiver skills they have learned while sleeping in the same room with their child
• Lactation room providing new mothers a comfortable, private setting where they can learn to breastfeed or pump milk

“The level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at our Siena Campus is nearly doubling in size so we can care for a greater number of premature and sick newborns in surroundings that are more spacious, private and comfortable for families,” said Rod Davis, president and CEO of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals and senior vice president of operations, Dignity Health Nevada.

The new NICU is the first of several milestones the hospital celebrates during its three-year renovation and addition, which also includes an expanded emergency department and a five-story, 220,000-square-foot tower. The NICU project architect was Orcutt Winslow Partnership.

Constructing on an active hospital site brings with it inherent challenges, and builder Kitchell took special consideration to mitigate dust infiltration, executing every possible tactic to curtail intrusion. The NICU was constructed on top of a microbiology lab and pharmacy, and was surrounded by c-section and labor and delivery rooms.

“We referred to ourselves as the ‘dust busters,’ taking the utmost precautions to preserve the integrity of the medical space and ensure the safety of patients and medical staff,” said Kitchell Project Director Mike Walsh.

The team took a meticulous approach to remediate any kind of issues, such as removing/vacuuming/replacing sheeting, reinforcing caulking, installing a negative air machine on the construction side of the surgery lounge, vacuuming ductwork and continually patrolling and inspecting potentially affected areas.  

The hospital addition is expected to be complete in the summer of 2015, bringing total capacity to 326 adult and pediatric beds.