NICU History

In 1996, four months after the brand new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit had been established at Community Memorial Hospital, Doug and Tammi Dawson became users. Their first child was born 9 weeks early and weighed barely 4 pounds. Scary times for brand new parents. For the next 31 days, the Dawson’s and the CMH NICU medical staff became the closest of friends. When their precious, now healthy, newborn finally arrived home, the Dawson’s vowed to repay the skill and kindness shown to them during that time of stress. This planted the seed for the first POP (Parents of Preemies) CMH Golf Tournament.

In May of 1998, approximately 60 golfers teed off at River Ridge in Oxnard. This one man (and woman) effort was the start of today’s extremely successful NICU Golf Tournament. Because of increased business pressures, plus the demands of raising a new family, in 2000, the Community Memorial Healthcare Foundation took over the responsibility for nurturing Doug and Tammi’s dream.

This year, we are enjoying the 14th Annual NICU Golf Tournament. All net proceeds go towards the designated purchase of special neonatal equipment.

Thanks to the overwhelming response from sponsors and players, this has become one of the premier golfing events of the year. For the last three years, we have had to turn away golfers wanting to participate in our annual “Fun”raiser. Past and future parents, the Community Memorial Hospital Foundation and your Neonatal staff thank you for your outstanding support.

CMH-NICU Saving Lives

Community Memorial Hospital's NICU has been awarded the designation as a Level III Community NICU, providing a full range of medical care services for ill or premature infants. This certification reflects the highest quality of comprehensive care.

At Community Memorial Hospital we expend every effort to ensure that each pregnancy results in a healthy baby. Unfortunately, at times, babies are born needing extra time and attention in order to get them off to the best possible start in life. That is the purpose of CMH's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where we provide advanced technological care rendered by the caring hands and compassionate hearts of our highly trained and skilled Neonatologists and staff.

In addition to an exceptional staff of highly skilled specialists, our NICU has available to it the resources and experience of more than 300 neonatologists at 120 hospitals across the country. When special cases need rare or unique procedures, we can draw upon our affiliation with the NICU at University of California, Los Angeles.

Teamwork, caring and technology all work together to make Community Memorial Hospital's NICU the foremost NICU in Ventura County.