Riley Children’s Health Plans $142M Maternity Project
(rendering courtesy IU Health)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRiley Children’s Health in Indianapolis has announced plans to create a comprehensive maternity and newborn health center. The $142 million facility will centralize all inpatient obstetric services and neonatal care offered at the three downtown Indianapolis hospitals in the Indiana University Health system.
IU Health the project involves the renovation of four floors at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health as well as the fourth floor of the Riley Outpatient Center. The hospital will be renovated to house inpatient services including a labor and delivery unit, a 45-bed Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit, and a postpartum unit. The health system says that will replace the current spaces at IU Health Methodist Hospital.
The existing 60-bed Level 4 NICU will remain in the same place. IU Health says the project will make Riley Hospital home to the largest NICU in Indiana and among the largest in the country.
"Riley Children’s Health is poised to deepen its impact on the health of Hoosiers by expanding our focus to include comprehensive obstetric care for pregnant women while continuing our long-standing commitment to children," said Matthew Cook, president of Riley Children’s Health. "Indiana currently ranks poorly in infant mortality rates, and this program is designed to provide the best possible outcomes for expectant mothers and their newborns."
IU Health says the project will also include the relocation of the existing outpatient maternal fetal medicine clinics at IU Health University Hospital and IU Health Methodist Hospital to the Riley campus.
The project is expected to be complete in the summer of 2020.