NICU center Kansas

Serving the Smallest Among Us With Tender, Loving Care

Babies born early need special care, and the days immediately following birth can be scary for parents. That’s why it’s important to work with physicians whose expertise and empathy you can trust.

At the Birth Center at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, we see 5,000 families a year. Approximately 12–15% of those families require the help of our neonatal intensive care unit. Partnering with Children’s Mercy, we can provide care for nearly all of the preterm infants who are delivered at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission.

Nurse examining a newborn in the NICU.

Helping Newborns Thrive

The NICU at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission’s Birth Center features 24 private rooms with a dedicated medical and nursing team committed to quality and safety. Children’s Mercy neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners and maternal-fetal medicine specialists provide around-the-clock, expert care for high-risk mothers and babies.

Our team in the AdventHealth Shawnee Mission Level III NICU is trained to care for infants born as early as 27 weeks gestation. Made up of nurses, respiratory therapists, lactation consultants, pharmacists and social workers, each supports the medical team of Children’s Mercy neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners who oversee the special care of your baby.

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New parents hold their newborn in the hospital.

NICU Visiting Hours and Policies A Place for Family

It’s important for you and your family to spend time bonding with your new baby. That’s why AdventHealth Shawnee Mission’s NICU visiting hours are open.

To ensure the health of our premature patients and to keep them free of infection, we ask that all visitors, including:

  • Have not been ill recently or are showing no signs of illness, like cough or fever
  • Have not recently been exposed to other sick children
  • Receive a NICU wellness screening with every visit

All visitation guidelines are subject to change based on cold, flu and respiratory virus season as well as community illness concerns.

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Access to Pediatric Services Partnership Provides Complete Care

To provide our NICU patients access to the vast depth of pediatric care specialists only available through a dedicated children’s hospital, the AdventHealth Shawnee Mission NICU partners with Children’s Mercy for diagnostic transport. Stable patients can be transported to Children’s Mercy to receive necessary services with same-day transport back to AdventHealth for continued care. This service allows our premature newborns to remain a patient in our community setting.

AdventHealth NICU families also have access to other Children’s Mercy services and follow-ups, including:

  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Genetic testing
  • Hematology and oncology
  • Infection control
  • Nephrology
  • Radiology, laboratory services and pathology
  • Special care follow-up

Surgery, including ear, nose and throat surgery and plastic surgery

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Extremely preterm babies or babies in need of immediate surgical intervention are transported to Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas and may come back to AdventHealth when they’re stable.

New mother kissing and holding her newborn baby.

Life After NICU Britain Development for a Successful Start

Our developmental care specialists from the Britain Development program work with families to help their baby have the best possible start in the NICU and after discharge on an outpatient basis, if needed.

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