Summerville Medical Center celebrates opening Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Summerville, S.C. — Imagine having to travel 40+ minutes each day to visit your newborn — for weeks. That’s what new parents in Summerville, N. Charleston and surrounding communities have been doing for decades and it’s why Summerville Medical Center is proud to announce the opening of a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Elevating critical care for sick babies from a Level II Special Care Nursery to a Level III NICU is a significant milestone for Summerville Medical Center’s growing high risk obstetrics and neonatology program. Summerville Medical Center has been working to move to Level III status for about a decade to meet the needs of its growing community.

“We’re committed to ensuring that families don’t have to travel far from home to receive compassionate care,” said Assaad Merchak, MD, Neonatology Director at Summerville Medical Center. “This designation reinforces that Summerville Medical Center is among the best care centers for premature and critically ill babies, and allows us to keep more families together while caring for their sick little one.”

In just the last two years, hundreds of families have had to travel 30 - 60 minutes each day to visit their newborns — when that care could have been provided in their community.

The difference between a Special Care Nursery and a NICU comes down to the acuity level of the newborn that can be cared for at the hospital. A Level II Special Care Nursery can provide care for stable or moderately ill newborns who are born after 32 weeks gestation or who weigh more than 1,500 grams at birth. A Level III NICU can care for infants who are born at 22 weeks gestation or older, who weigh less than 1,500 grams at birth, who require ventilatory support for more than 24 hours, or who have complex medical or surgical conditions regardless of gestational age.

In 2022, mom Amanda Sweezy delivered twins Campbell and Beckett at 32 weeks at Summerville Medical Center. The twins spent 20 days in the Special Care Nursery before discharging home. “Our babies were treated like they were more than just patients,” commented Sweezy. “The nurses and doctors treated them like they were their own children, which made it easier to go home at night knowing they would have their medical needs met as well as being loved on. Summerville Medical Center is 15 minutes from home for our family; being so close meant we could visit multiple times a day while also caring for their older sister at home. My husband was able to return to work and still visit each day. We are forever grateful to them for giving our babies the best start in the world and making a really difficult time for us so much easier.”

“We are proud of the long history we’ve had delivering babies in our community since we opened our doors over thirty years ago,” commented Stephen Chandler, Chief Executive Officer at Summerville Medical Center. “We see this as a key step in advancing neonatal care to the next level for families in our community.”

Summerville Medical Center’s Level III NICU is staffed by a highly trained multi-disciplinary care team including on-site 24/7 neonatologists, neonatal nurses, pediatric subspecialists including general surgery, respiratory therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathologists, radiology, lactation consultants, pediatric pharmacists, and more who can provide newborns with ongoing assisted ventilation, perform surgery on site, and provide advanced imaging capabilities.  The unit is comprised of 6 Level III NICU beds and 7 Level II Special Care Nursery beds, for 13 beds total.

In addition, the hospital offers a comprehensive pediatric surgery program led by board-certified, fellowship-trained pediatric surgeons Sam Soutter, MD and Sudipta Misra, MD who provide a wide variety of surgical options for newborns up to teenagers.

Summerville Medical Center’s High Risk Obstetrics and Neonatal Program includes:

• Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic that provides advanced care for high risk moms and babies who require extra attention prior to birth with care provided by board-certified perinatologists Manasi Patwardhan, MD and Sanjay Patwardhan, MD
• Prenatal testing and genetic counseling
• Staffed 24/7 by board-certified neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners, all board-certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and Sub-Board Neonatal Medicine
• Nursing team comprised of dozens of nurses with specialized training in complex and critical newborn care
• Comprehensive pediatric surgery program provided by our board-certified, fellowship-trained pediatric surgeons Sam Soutter, MD and Sudipta Misra, MD
• Only Lowcountry hospital offering state-of-the-art technology that makes it easy for families to watch their newborn anytime, anywhere, and on any device through a secure portal with a live video feed of their baby
• Dedicated obstetrics nurse navigator and robust offering of childbirth education classes

For more than three decades Summerville Medical Center has served as Dorchester County’s community hospital. The hospital delivers more than 2,700 babies a year and have one of the largest obstetrics programs in South Carolina. More than 300 infants have been cared for each year in Summerville Medical Center’s Special Care Nursery. In 2019, the hospital completed a $61 million women’s and neonatal expansion designed to add additional beds, neonatal services and state-of-the-art equipment so that families could receive high quality care close to home.