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New children’s hospital offers Valley sneak peek
BOARDMAN — The general public can get its first look at the new Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley Beeghly Campus at a community open house 1 to 4 p.m Sunday.
The entire Mahoning Valley is invited to the event, which will include Akron Children’s Hospital’s new Air Bear helicopter, television cartoon characters Dora the Explorer and Diego the Animal Rescuer, and drawings for a Wii and Wii Fit.
The children will receive Air Bear teddy bears and be invited to participate in a clinic where nurses will help them put a bandage on their bear and listen to its heart, hospital officials said.
Akron Children’s Beeghly Campus, at 6505 Market St., site of the former Forum Health Beeghly Medical Park, will begin accepting patients Monday.
People who take the tour, in addition to seeing the children-friendly hospital facilities, will see artwork on the walls by kids from schools in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties. The hospital’s art consultant, Ron Beahn, purchases student artwork done by children in grades kindergarten through 12. Students are reimbursed for their creations: Pre-high school students receive a $50 U.S. Savings Bond and those in high school receive $75 bonds.
Akron Children’s and Humility of Mary Health Partners, with whom Akron Children’s has had an affiliation since 2005, shared in the $26 million purchase of the former Beeghly Medical Park property from Forum Health. The inpatient portion of the hospital is located in the former Forum Women and Infants Pavilion.
Akron Children’s has spent $31 million on the new hospital, including $11 million for renovation construction, $7 million for medical equipment and furnishings, and $13 million, its share of the purchase price, said Akron Children’s William H. Considine, president and chief executive officer.
Akron Children’s Mahoning has 32 private in-patient rooms, each with space for parents to spend the night; a pediatric emergency department operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week; an outpatient hematology/oncology clinic and infusion center; inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services; inpatient pharmacy service; radiology; full-service laboratory; transport services, including a pediatric-specific helicopter; and a decontamination room attached to the emergency department that can be accessed directly from the outside, said Sharon Hrina, administrative director of services for all Akron Children’s facilities in the Mahoning Valley.
The in-patient rooms are large and have a roll-out couch for parents, who are encouraged to stay with their children. Also, an effort is made to not perform invasive procedures and treatments at bedside, but instead in a special treatment room.
“We want their room to be a ‘safe haven’ for them,” said Lisa Taafe, nurse manager.
The new hospital is staffed and equipped to provide general pediatric medical care.
However, patients requiring surgery or other highly specialized care will continue to be treated at Akron Children’s main campus in Akron or at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown until surgery rooms at the Mahoning Valley hospital are completed in 2009, Considine said.
The Center for Blood and Cancer on the campus, of which Dr. Armin Saleh is the director, is affiliated with Akron Children’s. The center sees children from newborn to age 21 for evaluation and treatment of childhood cancer and blood disorders.
Dr. Saleh said the center is family oriented and provides all that most patients need without leaving the community. If something such as a bone marrow transplant is required, it can be done at Akron Children’s main campus.
Considine said the philosophy of Akron Children’s is to treat every child “as if he or she were our own,” to treat everyone “as we’d like to be treated,” and to turn no child away because of inability to pay.
alcorn@vindy.com