'Tiniest Listing' campaign seeks to help NICU babies at Stroger Hospital

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Cook County's Stroger Hospital has posted a very different real estate listing in an effort to help premature babies.

"The Tiniest Listing" is a new campaign launched in the classifieds sections of newspapers and rental sites to ask people to help pay the cost of NICU stays. Individuals can "book a stay' in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to support the tiniest patients and their families.

In Chicago, 1 in 10 babies is born premature and the cost of a single night's stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is nearly $4,000, the hospital said.

About 90 percent of babies in Stroger's NICU are covered by Medicaid, which often doesn't cover the full cost of treatment. Stroger Hospital operates the highest level NICU available in Illinois caring for nearly 400 babies each year. The average length of stay in the NICU is 21 days.

All proceeds will go to the Cook County Health Foundation.

For more information, visit: www.thetiniestlisting.com