Healthier Ever After Begins at Our Nationally Ranked Neonatology Program
Grace Holbrook spent her first 90 days in the NICU at Rady Children’s. Now, the 5-year-old is happy, healthy and a part of the Rady Children’s family. Meet Grace.
Rady Children’s Hospital’s 60-bed neonatal intensive care unit provides level 4 care from medical professionals, the highest designation available from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Along with NICU care, the Division of Neonatology provides of full range of neonatal services, including a premier Comprehensive Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Center and a leading Neuro-NICU Program.
Rady Children’s Neonatology program has ranked among the top 10 in the nation for four consecutive years (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).
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 NICU care is provided by the neonatologists of Rady Children’s Specialists of San Diego.
Designed for the best possible specialized care and comfort, our NICU has homelike private and semi-private rooms run by healthcare professionals to help parents bond with their newborns. Learn more.
Rady Children’s also operates level 2 NICUs at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, and Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, along with level 3 NICUs at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, and Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta.
Additionally, our medical professionals provide specialized care and 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. The neonatologists of Rady Children’s Specialists also staff the NICUs at Palomar Medical Center Escondido and UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center.
- Only Level 4 NICU serving San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties.
- State-of-the-art telemedicine robots on-site for patient consultations, enabling faster diagnoses and treatment decisions.
- Among the first in the nation to purchase “SimBaby,” an amazingly realistic doll (about the size of a 6 month old) that can be used to simulate infant emergencies. (Watch the video and read our news release.) We have a second simulation doll that is newborn size.
- One of the largest neonatal transport services in California, transporting infants throughout Southern California and from Hawaii.
- Recipient of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization’s Center of Excellence Award for our ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) program. ECMO is a highly advanced life-support system used on infants with life-threatening heart or lung problems.
- Ventilator-associated and bloodstream infections remain below the published benchmark rate.
In the News
- Born at 24 Weeks, ‘Miracle’ Baby Now Home With Family in Oceanside, kpbs.com
- Improving Organoids to Advance Understanding of Lung Development and Disease, Select Science, features Sandra Leibel M.D.
- Fast DNA Sequencing Can Offer Diagnostic Clues When Newborns Need Intensive Care, National Public Radio, features Nathaly Sweeney, M.D., M.P.H.
- San Diego NICU Nurse Known for Writing Poems for Families Honored, 10news.com, features Linda Black, R.N.
Related Specialties
- Fetal Care Program
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine (San Diego Perinatal Center)
- Pediatric Surgery
- Rady Children’s Hospital Emergency Transport (CHET)
Support Our Program
One hundred percent of your tax-deductible gift benefits Rady Children’s.
To donate, click the link below and select Neonatal Intensive Care Unit from the Gift Designation Drop-down menu: