Grand View Hospital will officially open the doors to its new Maternity Postpartum Unit on Wednesday, September 9. This opening is part of a $7 million overall expansion and renovation project that will be completed in spring 2010.

                Boasting over 12,000 square feet, the 28-bed unit will feature “spa-like” décor, eight private rooms, a six-bed special-care area for critically ill newborns, and a new family waiting room.

                New mothers, Grand View employees, hospital donors, and media personnel will be invited for a private viewing of the new unit on Tuesday, September 8 before it opens to the public. Public tours of the unit can be scheduled by calling Grand View’s Central Scheduling Department at 215-453-4100. Manager of Maternal Child Nursing, Joanna Horst, RN, MSN, will be there to greet everyone and share facts about the new nursery.

                “We are proud and excited to be expanding our maternity program to a community with an ever-growing need for our services and expertise. Most rooms will be equipped with leading-edge monitoring equipment, flat screen televisions, and wireless internet access,” she said.

                Upon completion of the postpartum ward, Grand View Hospital is constructing a new labor and delivery unit, totaling 25,500 square feet when combined with the postpartum area. This new unit will provide a second operating room for Cesarean (C-section) births, five rooms that include specialty spa showers in each bathroom, as well as new antenatal and perinatal rooms.

                The Birth and Family Center at Grand View Hospital offers a wide range of special services, classes and programs, and amenities based around pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care. Grand View’s maternity program has received a five-star rating in 2007, 2008, and 2009 for maternity excellence from HealthGrades, the nation’s leading provider of objective, clinical quality hospital ratings. For more information on maternity services at Grand View Hospital, please call the Grand View Health Line at 215-453-9676 or visit www.gvh.org.

                All Grand View maternity and pediatric units are staffed by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pediatricians 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  In addition, Grand View has trained nurses with specialty certification in inpatient obstetrics, maternal-child nursing, fetal monitoring, and third-trimester ultrasounds, as well as neonatal advanced life support.