Neonatal Services/NICU

Caring for our tiniest and most fragile babies.

The 49-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego provides level IIIC care, the highest distinction available by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Our NICU is a major referral center for the most critically ill newborns, many of whom suffer from severe heart and lung conditions or are born extremely premature. Expert care is provided by the Neonatology Division of Rady Children’s Specialists of San Diego.

For the fourth consecutive year (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), U.S. News & World Report ranks our Neonatology program among the nation's best in its "Best Children's Hospitals" edition.

Our NICU is designed for the best possible care and comfort, with homelike private and semi-private rooms to help parents bond with their newborns. Rooms are also equipped with specially designed chairs, which enable all our infants to have skin-to-skin contact with mom and dad.

To meet the growing need in our community for advanced neonatal care, Rady Children’s recently opened a state-of-the-art NICU at the Acute Care Pavilion.

Rady Children’s also operates Level II nurseries at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas and Palomar Medical Center, and provides neonatal services (on site and on a consultative basis) to other hospitals throughout San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties, across the nation, and as far away as Saipan.

Achievements:

• Is the only Level IIIC NICU serving San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties.
• Has one of the largest neonatal transport services in California, and transport infants throughout Southern California and from Hawaii.
• Has received the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization’s Center of Excellence Award for three consecutive years.
• Continues to have a congenital diaphragmatic hernia survival rate higher than the published best-practice rate.
• Has stayed below the published benchmark rate for ventilator-associated and bloodstream infections.