Our world-class, Level III, regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is one of the largest in all of Southern California and unmatched in the United States for its state-of-the-art design and technology. Under the leadership of Charles F. Simmons, Jr., MD, the NICU admits nearly 700 infants per year.

Our Division of Neonatology offers comprehensive neonatal diagnostic and treatment facilities for critically ill newborns. It also is a multidisciplinary research unit, dedicated to providing the highest quality care for all newborns, ranging from healthy neonates to sick or premature newborns requiring close observation or intensive care.

All of the neonatologists are board certified, with a fully accredited Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program and paneled California Children Services (CCS) providers, since the NICU here is a CCS-approved Regional Center.

Newly renovated, the 22,000-square foot NICU has service capabilities that include:

• A total of 45 beds
• A direct elevator from Labor and Delivery, where a special stabilization room has been constructed for the immediate specialized care of high-risk newborns
• A self-contained Blood Gas Laboratory for immediate blood gas results
• Digital Imaging Readers in the unit, allowing X-rays to be read without delay
• Isolation rooms that can also be used for rooming in, multiple births and bereavement support
• Hemodynamic monitoring
• Omnibeds, which can be used as incubators and warmers so babies do not have to be moved between the two. Each Omnibed has a built-in scale so critically ill babies can be weighed without being moved. Healthcare workers have access to babies from both sides of the bed, which can be turned so the baby does not have to be turned.

The Division maintains an active relationship with the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In addition to conventional newborn intensive care, the following neonatal services are also available:

• High frequency oscillatory ventilation
• Inhaled nitric oxide
• Cardiothoracic surgery
• Pediatric general surgery
• Infant Progress Clinic
• Parent Liaison Services / Family Centered Care
• Bedside pulmonary function testing
• 24-hour in-house coverage by board-certified neonatologists, who are full-time faculty members at Cedars-Sinai

The Division of Neonatology faculty also conducts major research programs, including studies of:

• Neonatal brain development in response to injury
• Changes in brain oxygenation during acute illness
• The role of proteoglycans in neonatal brain injury
• The effect of anemia on cardiac function
• The role of nitric oxide in the prevention of chronic lung disease
• The effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in extremely low birth weight infants.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Good Beginnings organization is the support group for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Good Beginnings' purpose is to promote and advance the care of newborn infants at Cedars-Sinai.

The organization offers an array of outreach services and programs to benefit both families and NICU staff free of charge. Some of our programs and initiatives include facilitating a variety of weekly forums for parent-to-parent support where former NICU parents can guide and help other families through their NICU journey, hosting infant-care education opportunities for families being discharged with special needs infants, providing extensive bereavement support to families experiencing a loss, offering continued education to the NICU staff, as well as funding neonatal medical research. To learn more, visit the Good Beginnings website.

For more information on the Division of Neonatology and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or to make a referral, please contact: