Children’s Hospital at Scott & White Unveiled
TEMPLE, Texas, Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Children’s Hospital at Scott & White, the newest pediatric hospital in the state and the only stand-alone facility between Dallas and Austin, opened its doors to the community on Saturday. The afternoon celebration included a ribbon cutting ceremony, entertainment, activities and tours of the new 148,000-square-foot facility. Children’s Hospital at Scott & White will offer convenient, world-class pediatric care to families in 32 counties, who previously had to travel far from home to receive treatment.
“Central Texas families deserve a dedicated pediatric hospital where their children can receive the highest level of care and remain close to home,” said Robert W. Pryor, MD, president and CEO of Scott & White Healthcare. “This is something we’ve been promising them for quite some time now, and we are proud to fulfill that promise today by unveiling to our community this wonderful facility.”
The Children’s Hospital is a 64-bed inpatient facility including 48 private rooms and 16 pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) rooms. The facility has been designed to allow staff to deliver family-centered care in a healing and secure environment for the pediatric patient.
A Texas meadow color scheme is reflected throughout the facility’s comfort features, including Child Life playrooms where patients are encouraged to take a break from their treatment by playing with siblings and fellow patients. Architects from Dallas-based HKS led the design effort, which transformed Temple’s former King’s Daughters Hospital building into the Children’s Hospital at Scott & White.
“We have truly taken the needs of our patients and their families into account when creating this facility,” said John L. Boyd III, MD, CEO and chief medical officer, Children’s Hospital at Scott & White. “Now, not only will children receive excellent care from a wide range of specialists, they’ll get it in an environment that caters specifically to them.”
In a commitment to constantly improve pediatric care, Scott & White Children’s Hospital in July partnered with Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. The 20-year partnership will deepen Scott & White’s expertise in pediatric specialties and will ensure children receive the best possible specialty care.
“Thanks to our partnership with Texas Children’s Hospital, we will be introducing new clinical services that reflect the range of needs, conditions and diseases affecting children in our region,” said Reddy Beeram, MD, interim chairman of Scott & White’s pediatric department. “The families in our community know how important this is — we are bringing world-class care right to their front door.”
The Children’s Hospital at Scott & White features the latest medical and ancillary technology including:
- A 128-slice CT flash scanner. We are the first Texas children’s hospital and only the third designated pediatric hospital in the United States to get one. It allows physicians to conduct a scan in a fraction of a second, decreasing the need to sedate a child before the procedure. The scanner complements the digital imaging services available, which also includes an 8-channel Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner.
- An emergency department staffed by specially trained pediatric health care professionals, and equipped with dedicated instruments to treat pediatric patients, including an in-department radiology room and two pediatric trauma rooms.
- An equipment locating system, which allows staff to inventory, track and find a piece of needed equipment anywhere in the facility in a matter of minutes.
- A state-of-the-art patient protection system that not only protects patients while in the facility, but allows staff to keep tabs on the flow of the patient within the hospital; a security system that captures visitor information, cross-checks law enforcement data, monitors traffic and accounts for the number of visitors in a patient area at any given moment.
- A patient education and entertainment system, which provides, through the patient’s television, information, education and entertainment. The system can also capture real-time patient feedback at the point of care, an important tool in monitoring and improving patient satisfaction.
- A menu system, which provides patients with medically appropriate, personalized, on-demand food selections that are placed electronically, using the in-room television system.
Patients in the existing Children’s Hospital, which is housed in Scott & White’s main Temple campus, will be transferred on Tuesday, October 4, 2011.
To learn more about Children’s Hospital at Scott & White and to download photos and video from the community event, please visit: childrensmedia.sw.org
About Scott & White (sw.org):
Scott & White Healthcare is a non-profit collaborative health care system established in 1897 in Temple, TX. Among the leading health care systems encompassing one of the nation’s largest multi- specialty group practices, Scott & White provides personalized, comprehensive and the highest quality health care enhanced by medical education and research. Scott & White Healthcare includes 12 hospital sites, two additional announced facilities, more than 60 clinic locations throughout Central Texas and staff exceeding 13,000 (including more than 900 physicians and scientists and nearly 400 specialized health care providers). Get the latest news from Scott & White Healthcare by visiting our online newsroom, News blog or on Twitter (@swhealthcare).
SOURCE Scott & White Healthcare