Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Columbia Regional

University of Missouri Health Care’s neonatal intensive care unit, located at Columbia Regional Hospital, cares for more than 500 premature and critically ill infants each year. The neonatal intensive care unit offers comprehensive level three neonatal intensive care services provided by a highly skilled, multidisciplinary team of health care professionals including specially trained nurses, physicians, respiratory care practitioners, advanced practice nurses, social workers and pharmacists.

• The NICU was established on July 1, 1971, under the guidance of neonatologist Elizabeth James, MD. Today, Dr. John Pardalos serves as the medical director for the unit and works with five other neonatologists in caring for the NICU's tiny patients using a multidisciplinary team approach.
• The NICU moved to its new state-of-the-art facilities at Columbia Regional Hospital in November 2003.
• The NICU admits 450 to 500 patients each year. The unit cares for premature babies and those with complications.
• The smallest patient admitted to the NICU was a 22 4/7 week male infant. At birth, he weighed approximately 15 3/4 ounces. He just celebrated his fifth birthday.
• During 1998, the NICU provided care to 22 sets of twins and two sets of triplets. Multiple-birth babies can be co-bedded. They are lightly swaddled together in the same blanket in a position that mimics their position in utero, either face to face or spooning one another
• Each year, the neonatal transport team transports approximately 350 babies from other health-care facilities to Children's Hospital's NICU. The transport team consists of specially trained nurses and respiratory care practitioners. The service transports babies who weigh less than 15 pounds.
• The NICU holds a reunion each year for former NICU patients and their parents.