Miller Children’s Hospital opens 69-bed NICU

After six years of planning and construction, pediatric patients throughout the Southland received a special holiday gift Tuesday morning as Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach began caring for patients in its new, 124,000-square-foot inpatient pavilion.

Twenty-three babies from Miller Children’s existing NICU were rolled in incubators into the hospital’s state-of-the-art $199.5 million pavilion. Physicians and hospital staff tended to patients to ensure safe transfers.

The new NICU beds are an expansion of Miller Children’s existing, 69-bed NICU in the portion of the hospital built in 1970. Miller Children’s level III NICU, the highest level possible by the state, treats more than 1,000 critically ill and premature babies each year.

“Miller Children’s NICU expansion is an important addition to the care we provide,” says Arthur Strauss, MD, medical director of Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach NICU. “It was specially designed with the quiet, comforting environment of the womb in mind. This expansion will make a difference in the lives of many premature and critically ill newborns and their families.”