Make wishtv.com your home page

Bloomington hospital upgrading neonatal intensive care unit

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) – Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital is upgrading its special-care nursery in an effort to help smaller premature babies.

The (Bloomington) Herald Times reports that the hospital hopes to be able to care for babies born at 26 weeks’ gestation and older at its new level-three neonatal intensive care unit by the end of the year.

The hospital’s upgraded neonatal intensive care unit will provide more specialized monitoring and care. The unit will feature new state-of-the-art respiratory and cardiac monitoring equipment.

In the past, the hospital was only able to care for babies born at 32 weeks’ gestation or older, and babies born earlier than that were transferred to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Babies born as early as 30 weeks have been able to stay at the Bloomington hospital since November.