THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 12, 1994 TAG: 9408120567
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
A 5-year-old falls from a two-story window and is carried by his mother to the acute care center because there is no pediatric emergency room in Hampton Roads.
Six people sit on the lobby floor because there is no room upstairs for them to wait near a sick child.
Two newborn babies are sent to other hospitals because there are not enough beds for them at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
Starting today, that will all be remedied.
The eight-story hospital expansion at King's Daughters will create the region's first pediatric emergency room, will add 20 beds to the neonatal intensive care unit and will add space to allow parents and other family members to stay near their sick children.
In addition, the expansion will greatly increase outpatient services, all within a facility designed specifically for children - and their families.
``One of the things that makes a children's hospital truly unique is to deal with the whole patient,'' said Dr. David Johnson, medical director for patient care services. ``We have many more opportunities for families to be part of the healing process.
``We've tried to create an environment that focuses not just on the child's illness but on their whole being and also on the families.''
The expansion adds sleeping accommodations for parents in every room and expands waiting areas and sibling play areas. Rooms are arranged to give a view of the nursing station, and the staff has been reorganized into patient teams, which should improve individual care while lowering cost, Johnson said.
The first patients in the new building will be seen in radiology, starting Monday. The emergency room opens on Wednesday, and the first inpatients will be moved in September and October.
The expansion cannot come too soon for Dr. Edward Karotkin, director of the neonatal intensive care unit. In the past two weeks, two sick babies had to be sent to other hospitals because there were no beds available at King's Daughters.
``We don't mind working hard, we don't mind staying up all night,'' Karotkin said. ``What causes the most stress is when they call (for help) and you don't have enough space. That is the worst.''
The new neonatal intensive care unit will add 20 beds, parent sleeping and waiting areas, breast-feeding rooms and much more elbow space. Now confined to a small room, the new unit will cover nearly half of the fourth floor in the expansion.
``It will give us the ability to take care of all the patients in our region,'' Karotkin said. ``We'll have much more space. It will be much more conducive to taking care of these babies.''
The emergency staff is also looking forward to the move, which will take place Tuesday at midnight. The acute care center, which is one step down from an emergency room, handles 34,000 cases a year. The new facility is expected to see 38,000 to 40,000 cases a year, said Bruce Kupper, vice president for operations. Forty percent of hospital admissions come through the emergency room, he said.
The new emergency room will be staffed entirely by pediatric-trained emergency room physicians and staff. The entrance will be off Raleigh Avenue, on the opposite side of the building from the existing acute care center. The new center will double the number of beds, and add a trauma room and a room for making casts, among other improvements. The design is aimed at reducing the time patients and families have to sit in the waiting room. The unit is especially crowded during the winter, when asthma patients have more breathing problems.
The facility is crowded, in part, because many children do not have a primary care doctor and are brought to the emergency room for such ills as rashes and earaches. When a bona fide emergency comes in, children with less urgent problems must wait.
``Any time a parent identifies a child as being sick, that's an emergency to them,'' charge nurse Jackie Layland said. ``Sometimes they have to sit for six hours in the waiting room. Hopefully, this (new emergency room) will fix that and we'll do better service to the community.''
Outpatient services will also expand, taking up to half the space in the hospital, Kupper said. Up to 90,000 outpatients are expected in the coming year, excluding emergency room cases.
The new hospital also has expanded play areas - including glass-enclosed outdoor decks - that Johnson said are vital to healing.
``The play areas are a way of promoting mental health in time of sickness,'' he said. ``They aren't there just to amuse. They are there as part of the therapeutic cycle.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photos IAN MARTIN
Infants who are born prematurely often spend as many months in the
neonatal unit as they would have spent in the womb.
``We don't mind working hard, we don't mind staying up all night,''
Dr. Edward H. Karotkin said. ``What causes the most stress is when
they call (for help) and you don't have enough space.''
The current neonatal care unit is overcrowded. The new unit will add
20 beds, parent sleeping and waiting areas, breast-feeding rooms and
much more elbow space.
The new neonatal intensive care unit, which covers nearly half the
fourth floor, will be complete and ready for patients Sept. 17.
The current neonatal care unit is overcrowded. The new unit will add
20 beds, parent sleeping and waiting areas, breastfeeding rooms and
much more elbow space.
Staff color graphic by KEN WRIGHT
Operating Statistics
Expansion Highlights
Norfolk's Newest
Source: Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
PUBLIC TOURS
The newly expanded Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters
will be open for public tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. A
private dedication ceremony today, for invited guests only, will
feature noted pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton as keynote
speaker.
COMING SATURDAY
When the expanded Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters
goes on view in a community open house Saturday, visitors will see
something rare in a hospital - art, happy art, lots of it and all by
local folks. See Saturday's Daily Break.
KEYWORDS: CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF THE KING'S DAUGHTERS
by CNB