Hershell and Kaylea Watson quickly established a daily routine.
The Crossville couple, who have been staying at the Knoxville Ronald McDonald House, have been regular visitors of the neonatal intensive care unit at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital where their daughter Savannah Grace has been for the past eight weeks.
They arrive midmorning and stay by her side for six hours amid the cries of other babies, the beeps from various lifesaving machines and conversations among other parents and nurses. They return again at 8 p.m., when visiting hours resume, spending more time with their daughter who was born 13 weeks early.
Under a proposed $75 million expansion and renovation project at Children’s Hospital in downtown Knoxville, families like the Watsons would never have to leave their little ones.
“That would be the best thing,” Kaylea Watson said.
“Yeah, to be able to stay,” her husband replied softly.
“Because it’s hard leaving,” she acknowledged.
The plan, which was given the green light by the hospital’s board of directors last month, calls for all private NICU rooms to be in a new five-story building on White Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets, where a paved surface parking lot is currently used for emergency department visits and for staff.
It also will put the hospital’s surgery services, now on three floors, all on one level.
“These two services we have added to incrementally over the years, but they really are not up to the standard in terms of size and the family orientation that we need to have for those services. So this is really focused on that,” said Rudy McKinley, vice president of hospital operations.
The hospital tapped local architects Barber McMurry as well as Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch to put together a concept plan with the help of physicians, nurses, staff and parents whose children were once patients.
“It was a very engaging process, but also it brought the concept to reality very quickly knowing we could create the kind of environment we wanted. When we saw examples of other facilities that have done something similar at children’s hospitals, it reinforced that very vividly,” McKinley said.
Hospital officials will spend the next several months working to develop a detailed floor-by-floor plan with hopes of breaking ground next summer. A certificate of need request will be filed with the state, though it hasn’t been determined if additional beds will be sought.
The new 245,000 square-foot building will feature more natural lighting, rooftop gardens, a de-stress room for staff and a lounge for parents. It will also have a two-level underground parking garage with 146 spaces and several walkways connecting to the existing hospital.
Funding for the project will come from internal funds, borrowed capital and community fundraising efforts. Carlton Long, vice president of development, said the hospital hopes to raise $15 million in a capital campaign that will begin at the first of the year.
Over the years, the landlocked hospital has gradually moved away from the traditional open-bay layout to a more private, family-friendly setting.
For instance, in 2006 when the seven-story Goodfriend Tower was built, the pediatric intensive care unit went to all private rooms and later 16 private rooms were dedicated for babies specifically born dependent on drugs.
“I think that kind of proved to us how necessary this is because once you put those babies in that isolated situation they really started responding better and their length of stay was cut a little bit,” Long said.
Tracie Savage, staff development specialist at the children’s hospital, said when a baby is taken away from a family, many times the parents haven’t had a chance to bond with that baby.
And while a mother wants to spend time with her baby, there can be many distractions, she said. It takes a lot of equipment to care for a NICU baby and the beds are currently spaced just a few feet apart. If a critical procedure must be done with another baby, other parents may have to be asked to leave.
“There’s just a huge need. It’s going to be great for the families. We know it’s going to offer parents a better experience just having that more private area. It’s pretty much going to look like a nursery at home,” Savage said. “For mom to go into a private room that bonding process can take place the way it should.”
Source: knoxnews.com
