Well - Spring 2011 - (Page 5)

six-year-old Christian of fayetteville, N.C., has scoliosis and kyphosis and is well-known at N.C. Children’s Hospital. He has endured seven surgeries in one year to correct a misaligned spine and faces more to come. read his full story at bit.ly/meet-christian. Little Patients Require Special Care surgery department renews its commitment to treating children. HeN a CHild is siCk, PareNts waNt to know that he or she is getting the best care possible, and part of that is understanding the different needs that children have in the hospital. Not only do they need kid-friendly rooms and especially compassionate people who can help ease their fears, but they also need smaller, specialized equipment, particularly during surgery. “To get from mom in the holding area to being asleep in the operating room is a pretty anxious thing for kids,” says William Adamson, MD, assistant professor in pediatric surgery at the UNC School of Medicine. “You approach surgery for a 5-year-old very differently than for an adult.” With that philosophy in mind, Dr. Adamson and the Pediatric Surgery Department have made some changes that will help them extend their mission of caring for the children of North Carolina. Already, N.C. Children’s Hospital is one of the leading centers in the Southeast for pediatric surgery, with more children having surgery there than anywhere else in the state. The main change involves adding more dedicated pediatric operating rooms, meaning they will only be used for children’s surgeries and will have the specialized, smaller equipment needed for kids. “We’re consolidating what we were already doing,” Dr. Adamson says. “We will have a fully integrated, kid-focused, family-friendly unit, and all of the staff will be just committed to kids.” The caregivers have always been fully trained in pediatric care, but they were also trained in adult patient care. Now they will just focus on the special needs of children. While a lot of the changes are happening behind the scenes, there are also changes that patients and their families will notice. Grants from the N.C. Children’s Promise have made it possible to paint the unit with more kidfriendly signage and murals, and to create a video that shows children what they will see on the day they come into the OR. “The video will help them become familiar with things they will see, such as staff in medical masks,” Dr. Adamson says. “They will have a better idea of what to expect, and it gives them the opportunity to ask questions beforehand.” All of these changes are designed to help children feel less anxious about their trip to the hospital. Small details like that can really help, Dr. Adamson says. “The new structure of the OR gives us the capacity to deal with kids,” he adds, “and give them what they need when they need it.” photo: Brian stricKland Did you Know? n.c. children’s hospital is one of the few hospitals in the region that provides care in every pediatric surgical subspecialty. Surgeons at n.c. children’s hospital perform more operations on children younger than 1 than any other hospital in the state. Thirty percent of all operations at n.c. children’s hospital are performed with minimally invasive techniques, such as laparoscopy. www.unchealthcare.org 5 http://www.bit.ly/meet-christian http://www.unchealthcare.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Well - Spring 2011

Well - Spring 2011
Contents
UNC Health Care News
Community
Little Patients Require Special Care
2010 Community Benefit Summary
My Story
Lessons Learned
Nutrition
Calendar

Well - Spring 2011