James F. Padbury, MD, pediatrician-in-chief, and Betty R. Vohr, MD, director of the neonatal follow-up clinic, stand in the reception area of the Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

This family room is one of multiple spaces reserved for NICU patients’ loved ones. Women & Infants encourages families to build relationships with each other and hosts about a dozen events for families in this space every month, according to Padbury.”

All clinical team members carry a mobile device like the one shown to communicate with each other and to receive patient alerts.

Padbury views a bulletin board covered in several weeks’ worth of cards and notes that patients’ family members sent to NICU staff members. “To all the nurses that took care of my baby in the NICU that I didn’t get to thank personally, thank you for everything you did for my family,” read one mother’s letter.

Padbury takes the stairs from the family room to the second floor of the NICU. “This is our attempt architecturally to draw the two floors together so that it feels like one surface,” he said.

Padbury points out the high-definition diagnostic image viewing station in the NICU team room. An identical station is situated in another team room on the NICU’s second floor.

Each private patient room in the NICU is identical to the others to make navigation easier for staff, whether looking for an electrical outlet or clean sheets.

This photograph rests against the wall in a conference room used for educating at the teaching hospital, which is affiliated with Brown University Alpert Medical School. “It’s for the young people,” Padbury said. “They don’t know what it used to be like.”

NICU clinical team members converge for a meeting in the hallway during their morning rounds.

Resident pediatrician Carly Guss, MD, pushes a workstation on wheels through the NICU hallway toward a patient’s room.