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Many of the county’s healthcare and business leaders gathered in Inova Loudoun Hospital’s North Tower on Friday to celebrate the opening of the new sixth floor unit that includes a new pediatric care unit.
The floor features 12 pediatric beds, with six additional rooms available for overflow, 36 adult-sized medical beds, three “patient safer” rooms for adults and two for children, eight nursing stations, and child-friendly spaces including a children’s activity room.
Pediatric Medical Director Dr. B. Jill McCabe said the opening is especially exciting following shifting community needs over the past five years. When COVID hit, the number of children who needed in-patient services declined, while the number of adults needing in-patient care increased.
“The people who needed our care were the adults of this community, and even though it wasn’t necessarily what all of us pediatrics people would have chosen to do at the time, Inova did the right thing and stepped up and used our pediatric unit to create additional critical care space to care for the critical adults that needed to be cared for,” McCabe said.
McCabe said the prior 14-bed pediatric unit was easily transitioned into a place to provide critical adult care because of its state-of-the-art features.
“Within a couple months they found us space within the hospital, so we’ve never stopped caring for kids during this time, but we were in an older unit that we had to make the best of,” she said.
The new 42,000-foot-square foot unit has many advanced features including iPads installed outside each room, online tracking systems that locate patients from their wristbands, enhanced security tele-visit services, concealed overhead lifts and entertainment systems.
Child Life Specialist Melissa Manzo, who has worked for Inova Health System for seven years, said her primary job is to help reduce patients’ anxiety about being at the hospital. While the entire new pediatric unit will help with that, the new playroom is a special benefit.
“Having a playroom again is huge for the new pediatric ward,” she said. “Not only do we have innovative play concepts and digital concepts in the space for them to interact with, it gives us the ability to get them moving again — co-treating with [physical and occupational therapy].”
Having the communal space allows students to recognize they are not alone and give them a break from their rooms.
“Kids are not meant to be cooped up in their room, so it’s all about normalizing and creating those developmentally appropriate spaces and opportunities for the kids while they’re here to reduce stress and anxiety,” Manzo said.
The playroom has games, toys, a large screen TV and one wall entirely of windows providing a view over part of the county, and plenty of natural light.
“With natural light, the kids have a better semblance of day and night, especially when procedures and assessments have to happen at all hours of the day,” Manzo said. “This helps kids keep natural schedules, but also it’s just healthy for their brains, their development, to have that opportunity to play during daylight.”
The expansion comes at a time when many hospitals are closing their pediatric in-patient units, according to Inova Pediatrics Service Line President Dr. Steve Narang.
“In 15 years, 35% of community hospitals have closed their pediatric units, and there’s plenty of data saying that those who most need care are the ones who have now the least access and the higher morbidity and it leads to poor outcome for our future, our children,” he said.
Inova Loudoun President Susan Carroll said that is all the more reason for the health system to continue expanding its services.
“There are only two hospitals from here to Richmond that service pediatric [in-patients], and that’s Fairfax Hospital and Loudoun Hospital,” she said. “… Hence the reason why we need to continue to grow, not just from the population that we serve in Loudoun County, but also because we are a referral center for many other counties for the pediatric patients. This project represents the hard work, dedication and vision of countless individuals, our team members and leadership partners, who made this expansion a reality.”
The new sixth floor unit will open to patients on Wednesday, Jan. 22.