Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Everyone plans for the day that their child will be born, but not everyone plans on the possibility that they may need to use the services of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). While the vast majority of infants are born healthy and without complications, sometimes special care is needed.
Our newly-renovated Neonatal Intensive Care at The Women’s & Children's Hospital at Centennial is a specialty unit for newborns who need additional care in their first days, weeks or months of life, due to prematurity or birth defects.
This Level III, 60-bed unit has neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners in-house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An experienced interdisciplinary team works to develop the best treatment plan for each infant.
The Women’s & Children's Hospital at Centennial NICU provides transport services that allow access to this specialty care for parents throughout Middle Tennessee through our TriStar network of hospitals. Our experience and expertise results in these babies quickly reaching a level of maturity and health that allows them to go home and continue receiving care in their communities.
The team includes:
- Eight neonatalogists on staff to provide round-the-clock, specialized care for your baby:
- Sami Ismail, M.D. - Medical Director of NICU
- Susan Campbell, M.D.
- Ashraf Hamdan, M.D
- Sarah Hassell, M.D.
- Hadeer Karmo, M.D.
- Lara McKee, M.D.
- Eric Scott Palmer, M.D.
- Jenny Ravenscroft, M.D.
- Specialty-trained nurses
- Respiratory therapists
- Speech therapists
- Physical therapists
- Occupational therapists
- Massage therapists
- Lactation consultants
- Social workers
- Case managers
Pulmonologists, intensivists, cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, endocrinologists, radiologists and others may be involved depending on the child’s case.
Our staff, using state-of-the-art monitoring equipment and diagnostic tools, ensures that these babies receive the appropriate level of treatment and care and achieve best possible outcomes. We use the latest technologies and a minimal stimulation environment for the developmental care of our most premature babies. Our experience and expertise result in these babies quickly reaching a level of maturity and health to allow them to go home with their parents.
