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10/01/2021
Wentworth-Douglass is significantly expanding its services for newborns with serious medical conditions and children requiring specialty care, including becoming the first Seacoast hospital with a Level IIB Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), as part of a new partnership with MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) that began today.
The upgraded NICU, which allows the hospital to provide more advanced respiratory support for premature infants, is just one of the many expanded services that will come as a direct result of the new partnership.
Access to doctors associated with Mass General Hospital will also allow the hospital to increase its pediatric specialty services in cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nephrology, pulmonology, orthopedics, and surgery.
The new services, and distinction, will provide newborns and children local treatment for conditions that would have previously resulted in an out-of-state transfer.
“This is a glowing example of the incredible benefits our partnership with Mass General has brought to our community,” said Nicole Pendenza, Assistant Vice President of the Women and Children’s Center at Wentworth-Douglass. “For world-class doctors to be able to treat more infants and children here, who otherwise would have had to undergo a stressful transfer to another facility, is a tremendous gain for the Seacoast.”
“It is an outstanding benefit for Seacoast families to now have their critically ill infant cared for at Wentworth Douglass, often in the same room as their mother. The relationship with MassGeneral for Children really allows Wentworth Douglass to leverage care for Seacoast families,” said Dr. Chris Rouse, Medical Director and neonatologist.
MGHfC neonatal providers will now be at Wentworth-Douglass 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the hospital will continue to provide all the same services it currently offers. Wentworth-Douglass delivers more babies annually than its three largest area competitors – often combined.
“We are delighted to be expanding our collaboration with Wentworth-Douglass and to have the opportunity to provide care to the families of the Seacoast. Together, with the exceptional clinical teams at Wentworth-Douglass, we look forward to expanding access to high quality specialty care locally and continuing to enhance the health of children of all ages from newborns to adolescents,” said Ron Kleinman, MD, physician-in-chief at MGHfC and Mass General Brigham Pediatrics.
The new partnership will also have an impact in Portsmouth, where new pediatric specialty services will also be added at the hospital’s Building A location at the Pease Tradeport in the coming months.
“It’s a major win for the entire area,” Pendenza said.
To learn more, visit our Mass General for Children at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital page.