Neonatal Intensive Care Unit – Marie Curie Children’s Hospital, Bucharest

We have provided project management for the construction and layout of The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the “Marie Curie” Children’s Hospital Bucharest, a “The Heart of Children” Association project, financially aided by Vodafone Romania Foundation. The project was finished in November 2013.

The project for the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was inspired from the best unit of the kind, the NICU of the Iowa University Hospital. The new building of about 1,600 m², has 4 storeys (ground floor + 3 storeys) and was built in the back of the “Marie Curie” Children’s Hospital. Every storey had its own design in order to meet all the needs imposed by the new concept.

the ground floor – Training centre – accommodate a training room for neonatal emergencies. The telemedicine system that has been installed in the building allows watching complex medical procedures in real time. The procedures are used in the treatment of new-born infants. The training centre, through the telemedicine system, also permitted multidisciplinary examinations and a complex diagnosis of the patient. These activities are carried out together with highly specialized foreign medical centers. The telemedicine system also ensures training of physicians and students.

The first Romanian human milk bank is also seated on the ground floor.

the 1st floor – accommodates examination rooms and spaces for physicians, nurses and parents. The families of the babies are offered special spaces for the time the child is admitted in hospital. The families are also offered psychological assistance and the necessary information on the therapy undertaken.

the 2nd floor – accommodates intensive care units spaces covering 650 m² and were built according to the highest intensive care international standards:

every new-born patient is taken care of in a one-bed room;
each medical room is provided with customized ceiling pendants. The pendants make available all the medical gases needed for patient care, all electrical sockets for medical equipment along with platforms, thus allowing easy installation of medical equipment and vital signs monitors. These pendants can be flexibly set for optimal utilization of the space available in the intensive care wards;
a state-of-the-art air conditioning system with special HEPA filters for operating rooms and intensive care wards ensures a good separation between the areas with different degrees of sterilization;
in all the 18 intensive care rooms on this floor surgery for the patients in critical stages can be undertaken;
low noise environment and customized illumination systems, provide the infants with the comfort necessary for their development in their first days of life;
every intensive care room was provided with special doors, which can either slide or open wide, thus allowing the use of oversized medical equipment;
the spaces meant for preparing continuous dripping are sterile and the process is automated. It is performed in a laminar flow hood.

the 3rd floor – accommodates post intensive care units spaces covering 350 m²:

every patient is taken care of in a one-bed room, but all the rooms on this floor are designed to permit the treatment of two patients;
each post intensive care room is designed with special medical systems which provide all the medical gases needed for patient care, all electrical sockets for medical equipment, along with bars allowing easy installation of medical equipment and vital signs monitors;
this floor also has the same air conditioning system facilities and special doors like those on the 2nd floor.

The electrical installations of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are designed according to the newest requirements of operating rooms or theatres and intensive care units. They are made up of customized special electric panels with transformers for medical applications which warrant service continuity, the quality of electrical power and also personnel and patient safety.

All the spaces are monitored with a state-of-the-art access control system, video surveillance and fire detection devices. A pneumatic mail system was also installed.

The centralized telemedicine system, a technological first in Romania, was implemented on 4G technology and allows transmission in real time of video images and data. The physicians can watch the vital signs of the patients from any place all over the world.

The total investment in the construction and layout of The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the “Marie Curie” Children’s Hospital Bucharest was of about € 2,165,000. The financial aid of Vodafone Romania Foundation was of about € 1,400,000, the contribution of “The Heart of Children” Association was of about € 615,000 (obtained from € 2 SMS donations, 2% contribution from the income tax of natural persons’, sponsorships and humanitarian aids) and € 150,000 from “Marie Curie” Children’s Hospital.