Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Broward Health bringing newborn care to focus
Coral Springs $65M expansion will allow moms to stay with babies
Maternity services on the first and second floors of the new $65 million Broward Health Coral Springs expansion are designed around an overriding concept:
Bringing parents and families closer to their newborn babies.
That’s why babies in neonatal intensive care (NICU) incubators will now recover in 10 private rooms rather than in a centralized bay separated only by curtains. The rooms are equipped with comfortable chairs for their mothers, breast milk pumps, refrigerators and milk warmers to encourage breastfeeding.
Allowing moms to remain in the NICU with their babies also promotes what Dr. Arlene Boykin, medical director of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, calls skin-to-skin contact.
“The more skin-to-skin time and breastfeeding a small or sick baby participates in, the healthier the outcome for the baby,” Boykin said, noting that breastfeeding has been shown to reduce Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
For moms, early breastfeeding also helps increase milk production and decrease risk of post-partum depression, she said. “The more [mothers] are at that bedside and take over that care, the more comfortable and involved they become.”
Throughout the four-story, 112,000-square-foot expansion wing — scheduled to open Sept. 6 — large and small design touches are designed to promote privacy, security, comfort, family access, and state-ofthe-art care.
“The more skin-to-skin time and breastfeeding a small or sick baby participates in, the healthier the outcome for the baby.” Dr. Arlene Boykin, Broward Health Coral Springs
The first floor features six private triage rooms for newly arriving patients, three open rooms for unscheduled cesarean section deliveries, and 12 private “birthing suites” with extra space to accommodate visiting family members.
On the second floor, 28 private postpartum rooms each feature floorto-ceiling windows for bright natural light.
Another 28 rooms on the third floor are for patients undergoing robotic and general surgery, including bariatric, colorectal, gynecological, orthopedic, urologic, urogynecologic, and vascular.
All of the private rooms are about 30 percent larger, said Jared Smith, the hospital’s CEO.
Two supersized suites — with separate living areas, a large-screen TV, a long desk, robes, catering and additional options — will be available on a first-come, first-served basis “for an added fee,” Smith said.
Coming into service with the opening of the new wing are two da Vinci Xi surgical robots, an upgrade to the da Vinci Si robots in use at the hospital since 2009.
Robotic surgery places the surgeon in front of a console operating a joystick that controls movements of a camera and instruments inside the patient. Robotic surgery reduces incision sizes, blood loss and pain, and speeds recovery time, said Dr. Azeem Sachedina. “Almost every major abdominal procedure we used to do [with] open [incisions] we now do with robotics,” he said.
Sachedina said advancements and flexibility built into the new system include the ability to see blood vessels better, and improvements in “how the parts are placed.”
“If the Si was a very good car, this one has all the bells and whistles,” he said.
The expansion increases the number of beds in the hospital from 200 to 250 and frees capacity in the older “legacy” wing, which houses the hospital’s emergency department and other services.
About 30 additional staff members have been added to work in the new wing, Smith said.
A fourth floor of the expansion wing remains vacant for now and will be gradually equipped and staffed as population growth in Parkland and the surrounding community increases demand for services, Smith said.