Special Care Nursery

Image Content: Mary, Martin, and Logan

Imagine your newborn son or daughter was born premature or in need of special medical attention that required around-the-clock care in a hospital setting. What if that care were only available across the Bay? Thanks to the Washington Special Care Nursery, parents in the Tri-City Area have rested easy for the past decade knowing specialized local care is available.

Through an affiliation with UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, Washington Hospital operates a nine-bed intermediate intensive care nursery "satellite” providing ongoing care for infants with special needs. UCSF neonatal and pediatric specialists are now at Washington Hospital, providing the finest neonatal and specialty care available.

Leading the team at the Washington Special Care Nursery are UCSF neonatologist James McGuire, MD, MPH, medical director of the unit.

The unit cares for most premature babies born after less than 37 weeks of pregnancy. For very premature infants, born after less than 34 weeks, the unit provides emergency treatment to stabilize babies before they are transferred to Benioff’s 50-bed intensive care nursery in San Francisco. As a level III unit, it has the expertise and technology to treat the smallest, sickest and most fragile babies, who may require surgery or mechanical ventilation. The nursery in San Francisco is known to have one of the country’s largest neonatal heart programs.

As the only level II nursery in the area, one of the main goals of the affiliation between Washington Hospital and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital has been to provide the best possible care for these very special patients and their families without the added stress of a lengthy commute for parents.