CHOP Newborn Care at Pennsylvania Hospital provides board-certified neonatologists who care for premature and sick babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the hospital in Philadelphia, PA.
Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital, was founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond. Today, the hospital is known for services including obstetrics, high-risk maternal and fetal services, and neonatology. The hospital has 45 licensed and staffed NICU beds.
The unit's capabilities include a full-service, Level III NICU designed for the care of extremely low birthweight premature infants up to full-term infants with respiratory failure, sepsis, genetic syndromes and other neonatal conditions. The unit provides conventional ventilation, and high-frequency oscillation, jet ventilation and nitric oxide are available for the sickest of infants. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and high-flow nasal cannula are offered for milder forms of respiratory failure. Both apnea diagnostic and neonatal follow-up programs are also on-site to provide comprehensive care after discharge. Neonatal transport services from the CHOP Transport Team are available for outside referrals such as RDS, laser ROP surgery and PDA ligation.
The team includes 24-hour neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and respiratory therapists. Pediatric and pediatric surgical subspecialists from CHOP are also available for consultation in the NICU. Social workers, occupational and physical therapy teams, speech and feeding specialists, developmental specialists and lactation consultants work with both babies and families.