Good Samaritan Medical Center Announces Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Modernization
Lafayette, CO - Good Samaritan Medical Center is excited to announce the modernization of our Level 2 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In 2021, we will expand and modernize our NICU to have 12 single-family, private rooms so parents can sleep and stay with their babies, 24/7.
This NICU Modernization Project allows us to best serve our tiniest patients and their families, helping in their development and promoting bonding and healing. More than 1,700 babies are born at Good Samaritan Medical Center each year.
“We have seen that when the family is nearby, the baby heals faster,” said Heide Bliss, NICU Clinical Nurse Manager. “We are so grateful to be able to bring the latest in NICU technology and design to our surrounding communities.”
To create single-family rooms, the third floor of the hospital will be expanded to over 8,200 square feet. Construction will begin in 2021 and will take over a year to complete, using cutting-edge construction techniques to minimize noise and vibration so that our current NICU can continue to serve the community.
An interdisciplinary team worked together to design the new space, which includes special lighting and flooring for optimal neural development and healing, showers for parents so they don't need to drive home, and a special room for twins who need NICU care.
“This redesign will make life easier for our NICU parents, allowing them to have a home base at the hospital for the entirety of their stay, whether that is for just a few days or for several months,” said Tonya Chapin, Nursing Director of The Baby Place at Good Samaritan Medical Center. “Traditionally we have been able to support NICU parents staying overnight in a separate room of the hospital, but the new NICU will allow them to be in the same room as their babies at all times.”
The Good Samaritan Medical Center Foundation is helping Good Samaritan, a non-profit hospital, to raise funds for this project. Thank you to Saunders Construction, Walmart, the GSMC Volunteer Leadership Team, and other private donors for generously sponsoring several of the single-family rooms. All room sponsors will have their names displayed above an individual NICU room in perpetuity. If you or your organization is interested in sponsoring a NICU room or contributing to the NICU in honor of a NICU baby in your life, please contact Jan Bonner, the Executive Director of Good Samaritan’s Foundation at 303-689-5252.
SCL Health is a faith-based, nonprofit healthcare organization dedicated to improving the health of the people and communities we serve. Founded by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in 1864, our health network provides comprehensive, coordinated care through eight hospitals, more than 180 physician clinics, home health, hospice, mental health, and safety-net services in Colorado and the Montana Wyoming region.