Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County is expanding services in its Family Birth Place to become a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to care for sick and premature infants.
It is expected to open in summer 2026, according to a May 20 news release.
The hospital is at 1670 St Vincents Way in Middleburg.
It declined to provide construction costs.
The project will be a 5,000-square-foot expansion that will have eight Level II NICU beds in private rooms.
Infants from 30 weeks’ gestation and/or 2.75 pounds or greater at birth are subject to the elevated care. It includes increased monitoring of temperature and respiratory problems as well as prescribed feeding, the release said.
“This expansion will complement the award-winning care that the Family Birth Place already provides to families in Clay County,” Bryan Walrath, president and CEO of St. Vincent’s Clay County, said in the release.
“We are focused on ensuring every family has access to the services they need, without having to leave their community.”
Clay County is experiencing rising preterm births, according to St. Vincent’s.
In 2023, 12% of births in the county were under 37 weeks compared with 10.7% across the state.