UCLA Medical Center’s Last Birth, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center’s First

Annika Lindberg, daughter of Antoinette and Eric Lindberg, born on June 29 at 7:35 a.m., was the last baby born at the old hospital.

Antonio Ronald Morales, son of Nancy and Antonio Morales, born on June 29 at 2:28 p.m., was the first baby born at the new hospital.

New Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Offers Care to Santa Monica

Sick children who need intensive hospital care can now be treated closer to home with the opening of the new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital.

The four-bed, 2,500-square-foot unit opened June 18, following months of planning and anticipation. It provides intensive medical care to children who need ventilators for breathing assistance or require constant monitoring of vital organs, including the heart, lungs and kidneys. Children undergoing major surgeries, such as orthopaedic and spine procedures, also are cared for in the unit.

It is the first of its kind in Santa Monica. Until now, severely ill children who needed intensive care had to be admitted or transferred to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood or another hospital farther away from the community.

"This represents another proud moment in the long and illustrious history of our hospital," says SM-UCLA & OH Chief Administrative Officer Posie Carpenter. "It builds on our already outstanding reputation in women's and children's services and serves as another example of how UCLA Health System is making its world-class resources and expertise more accessible to the Westside community."

Posie noted that the PICU also will help ensure continuity of care for hospitalized children because SM-UCLA & OH operates the city's only inpatient pediatrics unit for children who require hospital care but are not acutely ill.

In conjunction with the PICU opening, SM-UCLA & OH's pediatric service was licensed as a 15-bed unit.

SM-UCLA & OH's expertise in caring for sick children actually begins at its Nethercutt Emergency Center. The 24-hour facility is the city's only "Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics." The designation means the hospital has met established criteria for providing competent, age-friendly emergency care for sick children.

The PICU is managed by Unit Director Lynn Coates-Leisen, who also manages the Pediatrics Unit and has extensive experience in this specialty, and Jennifer Geracht, MD, a pediatric intensivist who serves as medical director.

It Takes a Village: Many, but not all, of the people responsible for the opening of the new Pediatric ICU at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital posed for a group shot on opening day.