Medical Director: Zeenia Billimoria, Associate Medical Director: Mihai Puia-Dumitrescu
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital has 36 Level IV beds and an additional 8 acute care beds for convalescing infants. The Seattle Children’s NICU admits critically ill neonates from a 5-state area including Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, requiring a higher level of subspecialty and multidisciplinary care. Common diagnoses include congenital diaphragmatic hernia, necrotizing enterocolitis, meconium aspiration syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, gastroschisis, perinatal infection, persistent pulmonary hypertension, myelomeningocele, life-threatening malformations, genetic diagnoses, and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Services provided include extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), therapeutic hypothermia, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), peritoneal dialysis, pediatric medical and surgical subspecialty consultation. There are two neonatology teams: one consisting of 4 pediatric residents, a fellow, and an attending; the other consists of three advanced practice providers and an attending. Fellows play a key role in accomplishing the clinical mission. The neonatology teams do round on all patients with the bedside nurse, respiratory therapist, neonatal dietician, and pharmacist. Patients requiring surgical care are co-rounded on with our pediatric general surgery team daily. Dedicated occupational and physical therapists provide feeding and developmental care to NICU patients. NICU discharge coordinators collaborate with the NICU team and families to safely transition patients to their homes.