Now Open! (p.36)
WakeMed Children's Hospital

By Mark Piehl, MD

In June, WakeMed Children’s Hospital opened for business, and not a moment too soon. In recent years, my colleagues and I have been watching pediatric patient volumes steadily increase along with the growth of our community’s population, creating critical issues related to access to pediatric specialty services and inpatient capacity. Its completion helps us address these issues for current and future families in the Triangle.

THE FACILITY
The entire 34,000 square-foot, fourth floor of the new patient tower on the WakeMed Raleigh Campus is dedicated to the new Children’s Hospital. Some of its key features include:

– Increased Inpatient Capacity: The new hospital increases the Raleigh campus’s pediatric bed count by 30%, giving our specialists increased capacity to care for more children. It houses eight Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) beds, 10 observation beds, and 25 acute care beds dedicated to pediatric inpatients. With the exception of two sibling suites that house two beds, the rooms are private. There are spacious areas for parents to sleep In the room with their sick children and there is a full bath and whower within every room – even in the PICU.

– New PICU: Our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where we care for the most seriously ill children, is the only one of its kind in Wake County. The new PICU offers more space and technology and is designed with children and families in mind. We offer the ability for parents to remain in the room throughout their child’s stay. Thanks to a recent generous gift to the WakeMed Foundation, the PICU is now named after Dr. Jerry Bernstein, a long-time Wake County pediatrician and advocate for children.

– Family-Friendly Spaces: Every effort has been made to make the new hospital as child- and family-friendly as possible. Green spaces, natural colors and light, water, fish, and play areas all help create a calming and healing environment. Families have ample space within each room to remain with their child throughout his or her stay. We also have family lounges, a play room, and a teen room, complete with Wii, Xbox, games, and books.

THE SPECIALTIES
The addition of diverse pediatric specialists is an important part of WakeMed’s growth. By making advanced pediatric specialty services available in Wake County, families can avoid long trips for services and the missed days of work and school that those trips can mean. The list of pediatric specialties available at WakeMed continues to grow: pediatric surgery, emergency medicine, endocrinology, radiology, pediatric and neonatal intensive care, urology, ENT, orthopaedics, neurology, anesthesia, gastroenterology, cardiology, infectious disease, rehabilitation, psychiatry, and psychology.

An exciting development in the specialty expansion efforts is the recent appointment of pediatric surgeon J. Duncan Phillips, MD, as Surgeon-in-Chief. He leads the hospital’s pediatric surgery group and the growth of pediatric surgical subspecialties.

The growth of WakeMed Children’s Diabetes and Endocrinology Center is also an important plus for the community. Diabetes is the second most common chronic illness in children, and the incidence is growing. Under the leadership of endocrinologist Dr. Bill Lagarde, WakeMed’s team of diabetes educators cares for a large population of children who have diabetes. They also offer an innovative type 2 diabetes prevention program, which is now in place throughout the state. Dr. Lagarde, who cares for children with diabetes and a variety of endocrine disorders, recently added a nurse practitioner and, because of increasing demand, soon will add a second endocrinologist.

PHASE 2 FOR THE FUTURE
The WakeMed Foundation Just For Kids Kampaign fundraising effort for Phase 1 – building WakeMed Children’s Hospital – will continue as community contributions are needed to fund Phase 2, expanding the WakeMed Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Each year, more than 700 premature babies receive care in WakeMed’s Level IV NICU. Level IV is the highest designation a NICU can receive. This means the staff of neonatology specialists has the expertise to provide the most complex level of care to fetuses, premature infants, and newborns with equally complex conditions. Wake County’s only Level IV NICU is located at WakeMed.

Like the WakeMed Children’s Emergency Department and hospital units, the WakeMed NICU often operates beyond capacity. An expanded Level IV NICU means more mothers and babies in our area will receive the advanced care they need close to home. And mothers who have high-risk pregnancies will have better access to the specialized care they need.

Beyond the expanded NICU, we hope to expand existing and develop more services for the children of Wake County and the region. Knowing that the new WakeMed Children’s Hospital was once just a dream, we can certainly be optimistic that those expanded and additional services will likely become a reality, too!

Dr. Mark Piehl is medical director of WakeMed Children’s Hospital. He is a pediatric hospitalist who specializes in treating critically ill children.