WVU Medicine Wheeling (W.Va.) Hospital opened a neonatal intensive care unit Feb. 6, Fox affiliate WTOV9 reported.
The upgraded unit features specialized equipment and NICU-trained staff. It will allow premature and high-risk infants to be treated locally rather than being transferred to distant facilities, according to the report.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Douglass Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, told the outlet. “This has been in the plans for probably 2, 2-and-a-half years, and so to finally see it kind of come to culmination is wonderful.”
The NICU will accept its first patients Feb. 9.
