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To transform emergency care for the community’s youngest patients, BayCare is opening its fourth pediatric-specific unit across the health system at Winter Haven Hospital, located in Polk County.
Winter Haven Hospital is outfitting some areas of its Emergency Department with kid-friendly designs and adding pediatric emergency department observation services and telehealth support.
Three ER treatment rooms, a corner in the ER waiting room, one triage room and three emergency department observation rooms were redecorated with artwork showing underwater sea life for these expanded services. The move is the first step in new initiatives meant to address the growing need for children’s services in Polk County. The rooms will officially open Oct. 21.
“The pediatric population in our area is continuing to grow,” said Marta Mendoza, the director of Emergency Services at Winter Haven Hospital. “Knowing this, it is important to ensure that the pediatric patients and their families receive the care they need while being able to stay close to home.”
Thanks to a donation from the Winter Haven Hospital Volunteer Auxiliary and the hospital’s foundation, the pediatric-friendly environment helps ease stress and fear, making visits more comfortable for children and their families. The addition of pediatric emergency department observation services and telehealth support provides advanced specialty care closer to home.
The observation unit provides care that falls between an emergency room visit and a hospital admission. This allows patients to stay close to home, including overnight when necessary, and in most cases, they can be discharged home instead of being transferred to another facility.
Several Winter Haven Hospital emergency department observation nurses, including Ana Hall and Lyndsey Schmit, are being trained for this specialized care. They are working with the staff at BayCare's St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Tampa to prepare for their new roles.
“Marta came to us and told us that we have a huge need in the community for pediatric care,” Schmit said. “Of course, we were all very nervous, because we were not pediatric nurses, and then we started training at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, and we absolutely love it.”
Another element of providing this specialized care involves addressing the emotional aspects of hospitalization for younger people. Both Hall and Schmit were also trained in providing child life support in these cases.
“It can be unsettling for a pediatric patient [to have] to be admitted to a hospital,” said Hall. “So, we’re trained to help them deal with those aspects, such as building trust with staff, encouraging them to express their feelings in a safe atmosphere and explaining procedures and diagnoses in an age-appropriate manner. It’s been great to spend these last five weeks learning those skills.”
The new unit will also eventually have pediatric telehealth support from St. Joseph’s Children's Hospital using high technology fiberoptic equipment where a specialist can examine patients virtually.
For telehealth visits, patients, assisted by the Winter Haven Hospital team, will connect with specialists by way of carts equipped with a stethoscope, otoscope and ophthalmoscope to conduct virtual examination, explained Dr. Christina Canody, medical director for BayCare Kids. “We can do a telehealth consult from the providers at St. Joseph’s Children's Hospital directly to the bedside at Winter Haven Hospital. This is another way of providing quality pediatric care in a smart, deliberate way.”
As with all pediatric care at Winter Haven Hospital, if transfer to St. Joseph’s Children's Hospital is needed, patients can be transported using the system’s pediatric transport service.
Winter Haven Hospital’s unit will be BayCare's fourth pediatric emergency unit, joining Mease Countryside Hospital, St. Joseph's Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital-South.
Learn more: Pediatric emergency services at Winter Haven Hospital
