Making room for more kids

Michelle Swafford

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005 | 8:17 a.m.

Children in the Las Vegas Valley who need hospital care soon will have access to better technology, additional treatments and private rooms that are more spacious.

That's good news for patients such as 7-year-old Ashley Arreoloa, who was admitted to Sunrise Children's Hospital two weeks ago for liver problems.

"My liver, it got closed and if I eat something it will blow up so they got me surgery," she said during a recent interview in her hospital room. "I was so scared."

During her hospital stay, she had three roommates in a small pediatrics' room that was divided by a curtain. Her visitors had to sit on her bed because of the small space.

One of her roommates was a screaming baby.

"I thought she was going to scream all night and not let me sleep," Ashley said.

While Ashley was eager to go home, she was a little bit disappointed to hear that she was a little too early to enjoy the features in the new section of Sunrise Children's Hospital, which has private rooms, each with its own private shower -- Ashley had to share a shower with other patients on the floor.

Sunrise Children's Hospital will begin moving patients into the new pediatric intensive care unit, general pediatrics department and women's center on Nov. 16, replacing outdated and cramped quarters such as Ashley's. The upgraded and expanded departments are part of a multiphase $75 million project.

Sunrise Children's treats "500-gram babies with two shot glasses worth of blood in their whole bodies to 300-pound football players (up to age 18)," said Dr. Blair Duddy, a pediatrician and former director of Sunrise pediatrics.

The hospital's pediatric intensive care unit -- which is being expanded from 13 beds in curtained off bays to 24 private rooms -- treats heart and lung problems; brain tumors and other neurological disorders; back surgeries; and other conditions that need constant monitoring.

One patient who needed intensive care was 10-year-old Victoria Barragan. She was admitted Thursday to Sunrise's old pediatric intensive care unit for diabetes complications.

"I forgot my medication at school and I ate a lot of pizza," Victoria said from her small area that was enclosed with three walls and a curtain.

Noise was more of a concern to Victoria than the small space, she said as monitors from other patients beeped in the background.

The new pediatric intensive care unit is likely to be less noisy because each bed is enclosed in a private room with glass doors.

The pediatric intensive care unit is Lake Mead-themed with wavy blue floor tile and pictures of turtles and fish along the hallways. Each room is equipped with a security camera that enables patients to be monitored from the nurses' stations.

"The new ward is going to make our lives easier," said Dr. Leslie Avery, a pediatric intensive care specialist. "(There's) more privacy, more space, more comfort."

Each room is equipped with a built-in locked medicine cabinet and computer so that nurses can update patients' charts and dispense medications without leaving the room or lugging around a cart.

The floor also is equipped with a pharmacy that will be used solely for pediatric patients who often have to have their medications transferred into a liquid form.

New services will be offered such as bone marrow transplants that currently require patients to go out of state, said Dr. Howard Baron, a gastroenterologist and Sunrise's chief of pediatrics.

"In the pediatric intensive care unit, they will be able to do a cardiac bypass in children," he added. "We currently don't have the space."

The general pediatrics department will initially offer 32 private rooms -- down from 46 semiprivate rooms -- and it has the ability to expand to 55 beds in later phases of construction. The department is decorated with reddish tiles and pictures of lizards and turtles crawling along the floor to depict Red Rock Canyon.

The upgraded patient rooms feature desks and high-speed Internet access for parents who want to be at their children's bedside but cannot escape work.

There is also a parents' lounge with a kitchenette so parents are never far from their children.

"Everybody is very dedicated to making sure the whole family is taken care of," said Dr. Diane Lipscomb, who specializes in pediatric intensive care.

Sunrise Children's care is provided in a team approach that includes doctors, nurses, social workers, discharge specialists and pharmacists, Avery said.

Pediatric radiologists, for example, "are used to finessing kids" and prepping them for scans -- which can require sedating them to keep them still, Duddy said. "You want someone who does that a billion times."

Also, pediatric pharmacists are accustomed to breaking down dosages based on patients' weight.

It's easy to give a child an overdose if the expertise isn't there, Duddy said.

In addition to general pediatrics and pediatric intensive care, Sunrise Children's first phase includes a new women's center, which will provide obstetric and gynecological services.

That department will offer 42 private suites in the first phase -- down from 50 semiprivate beds in the existing hospital -- with enough sleeping room for a family member and a baby's crib.

A small nursery area allows new mothers to rest, but the rooms are designed for babies to stay with their mothers.

The women's center features a garden theme with floral pictures and decor.

The hospital's next construction phases are scheduled to include additional neonatal intensive care beds for critically ill babies and pediatric oncology beds. Existing labor-and-delivery beds are also slated to be remodeled.

Michelle Swafford can be reached at 259-2326 or at swafford@lasvegassun.com.