Neonatologists and Special Care Nursery

A pregnancy is considered full-term if the woman carries her baby beyond 38 weeks. Hunterdon Medical Center has the technology and expertise to care for babies who are born as early as 32 weeks. Our state-of-the-art Level II Special Care Nursery with highly qualified Neonatologists and Pediatric Hospitalists (pediatricians who specialize in the care of hospitalized newborns and pediatric patients) and nursing staff assures the best care possible for an acutely ill infant.

Hunterdon Neonatal and Pediatric Medicine offers some significant advantages to our precious newborn and pediatric patients:

• These pediatricians concentrate on and are experienced in the care of newborns and children who require hospitalization—they do not have an office practice.
• One of these pediatricians is present in the hospital 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to be there whenever your newborn or child needs a pediatrician.
• The pediatrician on duty is able to rapidly respond to emergencies in Hunterdon Medical Center’s Emergency Department when requested by the emergency department physician.
• The pediatrician on duty is readily available to be present at deliveries if immediate care for a newborn is needed.
• A pediatrician is readily available to care for a newborn in our Special Care Nursery.
• All of our pediatricians have additional experience in neonatology.

The Neonatologist/Pediatric Hospitalists provide inpatient care for patients of Hunterdon Pediatric Associates and many family practices affiliated with Hunterdon Medical Center. These specialists do not replace your pediatrician or family physician. However, they do communicate with your pediatrician or family physician when your child is admitted, regularly during your child’s hospitalization, and the day that your child or newborn is discharged home. This will ensure continuity of care and appropriate post-discharge care.

This highly specialized care is available to families 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So in most cases, there is no need to travel a long distance to a university hospital setting for care of their newborn. The expertise is right here!

The Special Care Nursery

The Special Care Nursery provides expert care for newborns who are born up to eight weeks premature or with a medical problem, such as an infection or respiratory condition.

Most importantly, the Special Care Nursery allows for the most fragile newborn babies to stay in the same hospital with their mothers. Without this advanced level of care, newborns who are in need of special care would have to be transported to a tertiary care facility more than an hour away. Any baby born prior to 32 weeks can be readied for transport to the nearest NICU (either St. Peter’s in New Brunswick or Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown).

The spacious six-bed special care nursery has neonatology and pediatric coverage 24 hours a day, seven days week, under the direction
of Sutharsanam Veerappan, MD, Medical Director of the Hunterdon Neonatal and Pediatric Medicine, board-certified in neonatology and pediatrics. It also has six intensive care infant beds equipped with
state-of-the-art monitoring technology and a picture archiving communication system that provides digital imaging physicians can view immediately. White noise machines that make nature sounds help soothe the infants.

Parents are an important part of the care provided to babies admitted to the Special Care Nursery! You will be encouraged to be with your baby often, and to provide skin to skin and feedings once your baby’s condition allows.