Muma Children’s Hospital at TGH Opens DeBartolo Family Nutrition Center for Infants and Children to Support Babies in the Jennifer Leigh Muma NICU

Muma Children’s Hospital at TGH celebrated the opening of a new nutrition center.

 

 

Tampa, FL (Oct. 23, 2024) – Muma Children’s Hospital at Tampa General Hospital (TGH) and the Jennifer Leigh Muma Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) received a generous $1 million gift from the DeBartolo Family Foundation to establish the DeBartolo Family Nutrition Center for Infants and Children.

 

 The nutrition center will provide a modernized, dedicated space for handling, storing and distributing breast milk and formula. Center operations will label, organize and identify milk and formula containers using a scannable barcode system linked to each patient, providing customized recipes for each infant’s developmental needs.

 

“As an academic health system, we are committed to revolutionizing how we care for the all the babies and mothers we serve,” said Melissa Golombek, vice president of Muma Children's Hospital at TGH and TGH Women's Institute. “The addition of the nutrition center helps to ensure that every infant in our NICU receives milk or formula tailored to their unique nutritional requirements.”

 

The DeBartolo Family Foundation, established by Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., has donated more than $17 million to TGH’s Foundation since 2019. DeBartolo’s daughter Nikki and her husband, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, are longtime supporters of the hospital.

“It’s easy for some people to just write a check and not see where it’s going, but to actually see all the great things—and how many babies this is going to help—is amazing,” said Nikki DeBartolo.

 

“We are so grateful to Nikki and Chad for this meaningful gift in support of our littlest and often most vulnerable patient population,” said Frann Leppla, executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer of the Tampa General Hospital Foundation. “The DeBartolos have an unwavering appreciation for the world-class care provided by our academic health system. Now, more than ever before, the family is seeing the impact of that care.”

 

The new space was designed with the input of nurses, nutritionists and clinical leaders. The addition of the nutrition center to the Jennifer Leigh Muma NICU aims to promotes quality, life-saving and sustaining care to the hospital’s most vulnerable patients.

 

“We always want to ensure optimal growth and development for babies in our NICU; so with our new nutrition center we can precisely formulate their nutrition to give them the best possible start and help them thrive,” said Dr. Tara Randis, associate professor and chief of the Division of Neonatology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine as well as attending neonatologist and director of neonatal transport for the Jennifer Leigh Muma Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at TGH. “The first few days and weeks of life in the NICU can be the most fragile time for these infants, so having our experienced team customize nutrition is essential.”

 

The Jennifer Leigh Muma NICU is one of only 11 Regional Perinatal Intensive Care Centers designated by the State of Florida to provide specialized care to women with high-risk pregnancies and premature infants. With an 82-bed capacity unit, neonatologists from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and trained neonatal critical-care nurses are able to provide specialized treatment to nearly 1,500 babies each year.

 

Tampa General Hospital was recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals of 2024. This year TGH’s Women’s Institute received the highest national designation (Level IV) in maternal care from The Joint Commission — the gold standard in accreditation.

 

For images of the new space, visit: https://mediashare.tgh.org/debartolo-nutrition-center