Modern care for kids
Erlanger hospital adds private rooms, new features to pediatric intensive care unit
Children’s Hospital at Erlanger officials unveiled the hospital’s renovated pediatric intensive care unit, which they say brings much-needed modernization to the Chattanooga region’s only facility of its kind for children.
Plans to renovate the unit for the first time in more than a decade began in 2019, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday marked completion of Phase 2, which transformed the previous “open bay” area into six private rooms.
Now, the unit houses 16 beds, all of which are contained in private rooms with the exception of one large open bay near the nurses’ station.
Nurse Lindsey Cox said following the ceremony that the renovations will help patients and families feel more comfortable.
“They tend to stay, some of them, for a long amount of time,” Cox said. “So having that privacy and more space in the rooms and their own private bathroom, I feel like, makes a difference. … Something as simple as having your own commode makes a difference in how you feel.”
Dr. Yuvraj Kalra, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit, spoke during the ceremony and said families and patients are at their most vulnerable and need to communicate among themselves and providers behind closed doors rather than curtains.
“Sometimes the conversations with them are difficult and sensitive and sometimes devastating to them, and so we want to be able to have private spaces where we can have these difficult conversations,” Kalra said. Dr. Marvin Hall, chief medical officer for Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, said after the ribbon-cutting that having larger private rooms is important not only for families but because the technology needed to care for critically ill patients takes up a lot of space.
Hall noted the need for more space in the unit has grown since Erlanger has added new children’s speciality services, such as pediatric nephrology and a hightech form of life support known as ECMO, which allow more patients to stay local rather than being transferred outside of the region for care.
“This renovation really improves what we can do for children who need our intensive care services So I’m very grateful to everyone who’s worked to make this happen.”
– DR. CHARLES WOODS, CEO OF CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AT ERLANGER
Admissions to the facility — which is home to the Chattanooga region’s only children’s hospital — have nearly doubled over the past five years, according to Kalra.
In addition, other aspects of the renovation include updated equipment, improved medication safety, supply storage and staff accommodations. Nurse Caitlin Kennedy said the improvements will lead to not only better patient care but workflow and efficiency.
While a new children’s hospital is still needed, Hall said the PICU renovations will help Erlanger bridge the gap until that plan comes to fruition. The Kennedy Outpatient Center, which opened across the street from the main hospital in 2019, was the first step toward building a new, comprehensive children’s hospital.
The pediatric intensive care unit renovation was largely funded by community support totaling $486,500 in donations, according to a news release from Erlanger.
“This renovation really improves what we can do for children who need our intensive care services,” Dr. Charles Woods, CEO of Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, said during the ceremony. “So I’m very grateful to everyone who’s worked to make this happen, both on the foundation side, construction, nursing, physicians, many others.”