Phoebe’s NICU Team Prepares for Move to New Facility

Albany, GA | May 14, 2024 – Jennifer Heleski can barely contain her excitement every time she has a chance to go inside the Phoebe Trauma & Critical Care Tower that is currently under construction on Phoebe’s main campus and will soon be the new home of Phoebe’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

"We couldn’t be more excited about our new NICU. Our NICU leadership team is doing a wonderful job of planning to ensure that we are creating an environment that is conducive to the well-being of our neonates and allows for the very best quality of care,” said Heleski who is the Director of Women’s & Children’s Services at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital (PPMH).

The tower will provide southwest Georgia’s most advanced facilities for the delivery of trauma, emergency and intensive care. The first floor will house PPMH’s Emergency & Trauma Center that officially earned state designation as a Level II Trauma Center earlier this year. The third floor will include a new 20-bed adult intensive care unit. But Heleski is focused on the second floor where the NICU will be located. This week, she helped lead a tour of the tower for Phoebe Foundation board members, and she and the NICU team regularly visit their future home.

“We look at workflow and logistics, where we’ll put equipment. Once the space is more complete, we’ll come over to do drills and simulations before we move in, so that everybody is prepared to respond to any situation and can respond quickly because they know where to go and where everything is,” Heleski said.

Phoebe’s current NICU is licensed for 27 beds, but as one of six regional perinatal centers in Georgia caring for premature babies born in 22 counties, the NICU team cares for more than 40 babies on an average day. Once the new NICU opens and the current NICU is renovated, Phoebe’s NICU space will increase from 11,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet.

“Our new area will be very spacious and allow for families to be more comfortable and to stay with their babies. It is truly a much-needed growth and improvement for our NICU, as well as for our community," Heleski said.

Despite the current space limitations, the Phoebe NICU team provides a quality of care that’s comparable to the largest and most advanced NICUs in the country. Recently, the team earned two awards from the Georgia Hospital Association – the First Place Patient Safety and Quality Award for their Golden Hour Project and a Special Achievement Award for a project to reduce ventilator-acquired pneumonia.

PPMH was also the first Georgia hospital to earn designation as a Level III NICU under national standards set by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is also one of only three hospitals in Georgia designated as a Level III Maternal facility, and Phoebe is recognized as a Georgia 5 STAR Breastfeeding Friendly Hospital, affirming its dedication to supporting breastfeeding mothers and infants.

“We have an amazing team that truly is dedicated to providing the best possible care and service to our mothers and babies, and our new facility will only enhance those capabilities,” Heleski said.

If construction on the Trauma & Critical Care Tower remains on schedule, the new Emergency and Trauma center should open sometime this fall, followed a month later by the NICU then the adult ICU the month after that.