Officials at Dell Children's Medical Center recently unveiled their completed 10-month-long expansion project to increase the neonatal intensive care unit's capacity while offering private amenities for parents. The hospital also created a new formula lab and milk bank to provide personalized nutrition for newborns.

The details

The NICU expansion added 24 new rooms, bringing the wing's total to 56, allowing staff to care for nearly double the amount of premature babies and their families.

"These rooms will give us more space, but they also give us better space to then care for those patients,” said Dr. John Loyd, chief of neonatology at Dell Children’s Medical Center, in a news release.

That's because each of the new rooms provides an area for the parent to stay during the baby's time in the NICU.


Amenities in the new rooms include:
  • Private bathrooms
  • Recliners
  • Pullout beds
What else?

Along with the additional rooms, the hospital opened a new formula lab and milk bank area. According to the news release, this allows staff more opportunities to provide human milk management services, as well as the ability to mix formula for newborns in the hospital based on each one's individual nutritional needs.