Phelps Opens New $24.5M Maternal Child Health Center to Enhance Care
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Phelps Hospital has reimagined how to take care of mothers who arrive to give birth and their newborns with the opening of its new Maternal Child Health Center.
Last Thursday, Phelps cut the ribbon on its new 22,700-square foot space that more than doubles its maternity area and provide specialized care by medical staff if needed.
The $24.5 million renovation includes four modern labor and delivery rooms with tubs, two triage rooms and a triage bay, two operating rooms, a two-bed recovery room and 15 private postpartum rooms with bathrooms, many of which overlook the Hudson River, instead of semiprivate rooms.
Previously, if an infant needed specialized care, they would have to be transferred to a Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), typically Northern Westchester Hospital, said Dr. Karen Murray, Phelps’ chair of obstetrics and gynecology.
“It allows us to take care of moms and babies and keep them together,” Murray said. “Like in the past, if we had a patient who’d come in that delivered a little earlier, we had to transfer the babies to a higher-level care. Now that we have 24-hour neonatology, we have the equipment and the ability to actually house and take care of them. It’s really what this has allowed us to do, really give a better level of care for our patients.”
Murray said the hospital took space from psychiatry, renovated the square footage and turned it into the post-partum area.
Before the ribbon-cutting on the fourth-floor wing, Phelps Community Board President Kevin Plunkett said everyone connected with the hospital is proud of the accomplishment. More than $2 million had been raised to contribute toward the cost.
“This gives Phelps the opportunity to provide all the services that are needed for all the children that are born,” he said. “If there is a child who has some stress we can handle it here with our great doctors.”
Dr. Mazen Khalifeh, director of pediatrics at Phelps, said the maternity ward was due for an update, and with the latest technology available for medical staff, it provides patients with top-level care and a great experience when their child is born.
“So these are happy moments for the parents,” Khalifeh said. “They need to be sitting and nurturing in a peaceful environment and enjoy those moments and bond with their babies. That makes a big difference in the long run for them in the future.”
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, whose district includes Sleepy Hollow, where Phelps is located, said it’s critical for health care to continue evolving to improve patient outcomes.
“It’s so important that health care and hospitals change with how people are seen in these natural life processes and creating an environment that’s welcoming and reassuring and certainly keeps the patient at the center of what’s going on,” Stewart-Cousins said.
Other features of the Maternal Child Health Center include a dedicated well-baby nursery and a five-bed nursery suite staffed by neonatologists for immediate care and stabilization of sick newborns. There is also a new welcome area, a family waiting room, a conference room for family and staff education and staff support areas such as lounges, on-call rooms, restrooms, changing rooms, offices and storage.
There have been roughly 1,000 children born each year at Phelps, according to Murray. It is expected that births could rise to about 1,200 annually once the Maternal Child Center has been open, she said.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
