Santa Rosa Memorial earns newborn intensive care designation

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit for newborns has been designated a Community Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by California Children’s Services, hospital officials said.

The designation recognizes that the University of California San Francisco’s intensive Care Nursery at Memorial Hospital offers the highest level of neonatal care in the North Bay to fragile, critically ill newborns, Memorial Hospital’s spokeswoman Vanessa deGier said.

California Children’s Services also re-designated Memorial Hospital’s Pediatric Department as a Pediatric Community Hospital for its ability to provide outstanding care to patients under 21 years old.

Dr. Alan Shotkin, neonatologist and medical director of the Intensive Care Nursery, said:

“We’ve always been proud of the excellent neonatal care that we offer at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. With this new designation, we’re confident that our high level of care will continue to greatly benefit the infants, new mothers and families within our community.”

Board-certified or board-eligible pediatricians are available at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital 24 hours a day as well as nurses and respiratory therapists who are certified in the Neonatal Resuscitation Program.

The nurseries at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco are equipped to treat a wide range of severe medical complications that can affect premature and full term infants such as respiratory failure, neonatal sepsis and birth asphyxia hernia, deGier said.