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VBMC-Brownsville Gets Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Designation
- Updated: October 5, 2018
Hospital staff proudly pose with the certificate VBMC-Brownsville recently received from the state. Photo: Tony Vindell/LFN
by Tony Vindell/LFN
Babies weighing as little as 500 grams are taken care of in a neonatal section of Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville and that requires special care provided by a staff of about 40.
And for that and its commitment to the community, the hospital has received a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit designation from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
On Wednesday, Sept. 26, hospital personnel met to show off the certificate it received after working on obtaining such achievement for more than a year.
“We are really excited to be the only hospital in Brownsville to get this designation,’ Marisa Aguilar, its chief operating officer, said. “This is quite an accomplishment.”
Dawn LeRoy, chief nursing officer, said VBMC-Brownsville is committed to providing quality services to the community.
”This is been a long journey for us here,” she said. “We have been working on this for more than a year and this is the result of everybody working together.”
The neonatal unit has staff trained to care for babies as young as 23 weeks old, who are born with critical illnesses and who need breathing equipment to stay alive.
VBMC-Brownsville is one of three hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley that has received such designation. The other two are VBMC-Harlingen and another hospital in Hidalgo County.