Munroe Regional Medical Center has had very close ties with UF Health Shands Hospital of Gainesville, and now, Shands doctors are working in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Munroe Regional. This is great news for not only the Ocala hospital, but also the overall health of babies in Marion County, as Shands neonatal doctors provide both "academic and operational expertise."
Furthermore, should a patient need to be transported from Ocala to Shands in Gainesville for Gainesville's state-of-the-art NICU facility, The fact that there are Shands doctors at Munroe makes the transition easier.
The NICU at Munroe Regional Medical Center is a brand new $13-million, 20,000 square-foot Level II neonatal intensive care unit. The NICU at UF Health Shands Hospital is a Level IV facility, which provides more "specialized care such as heart bypass in corrective surgeries." The new neonatal unit at Munroe can now treat babies delivered at 32 weeks rather than the previous 36-week limit. With the new upgraded unit as well as Shands doctors helping to staff, fewer complicated newborns will have to be sent away, and potentially high-risk pregnant women will be able to stay near their homes. Furthermore, local pediatricians now have the added relief of knowing that sick babies will get a high level of care before leaving the hospital and moving on to their general pediatricians.
For more details and information on the new NICU at Munroe Regional as well as the medical center's relationship with UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, be sure to read the full article at
Gainesville.com.
