Date: Fri 23-Apr-1999

Publication: Hea

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

CCMC-children's-hospital

Full Text:

HEALTH MONITOR: An Answer For The Small Patients Who Need A Hospital

(with cuts and sidebar)

HARTFORD -- Imagine a hospital where kids can dress in surgical scrubs, play

with puppets, choose bubble gum or pizza scented anesthesia, watch videos,

explore medical equipment, paint pictures on the walls, and drive into the

operating room in a miniature Jeep or Barbie car.

This doesn't sound like a typical hospital, because it is not. The Connecticut

Children's Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford is the state's only free-standing

medical facility dedicated solely to the treatment of children, and one of

only 59 such facilities in the country.

Not so very long ago, most children who had to be hospitalized were admitted

to the pediatric wards of general hospitals which treat patients of all ages

and conditions. Even today, 85 percent of the 3 million children admitted to

hospitals each year are in general hospitals, according to statistics from the

American Academy of Pediatrics.

Children's hospitals were established as health professionals began to realize

that children are not simply "small adults," and therefore require special

attention, in addition to medical care, during hospitalization. Children's

hospitals specialize in kids.

When it opened in 1996, CCMC consolidated pediatric programs and personnel

that previously were provided at three hospitals: Hartford Hospital, the

University of Connecticut Health Center/John Dempsey Hospital, and Newington

Children's Hospital. A teaching hospital, CCMC also is the home of the

University of Connecticut School of Medicine residency program in pediatrics.

More than 145,000 children have visited the 123-bed facility, as inpatients or

outpatients, during each year of its operation.

CCMC is equipped with smaller-sized medical equipment and children's beds.

Everything at the hospital -- from the brightly-colored environment and walls

covered with children's art to the playrooms with toys, games and videos -- is

engineered to help kids feel more comfortable and to provide familiar

distractions to medical anxieties.

"All of this helps to normalize the hospital experience for the child, and is

proven to best promote the child's healing process," said James Loomis, PhD,

manager of Child and Family Services at CCMC. "Our patient is a child, and he

can't be expected to deal with what is happening to him like an adult. We've

essentially created a kid's world, to help alleviate their fears and

anxieties, and to just let kids be kids, even while they're at the hospital."

While walls splashed with bright colors and smaller beds may make kids feel

more comfortable, it helps to ease parents' minds that with more than 50

pediatric programs and services, CCMC offers the most complete range of

pediatric services and expertise available in a single location, including

extensive child and family support services, a pediatric emergency department,

and specialized equipment for the treatment of children.

The team of physicians at CCMC makes the medical center a leading hospital for

children in the Northeast. All of the physicians have a sub-specialty in

pediatric medicine. Doctors at the hospital also have a wide range of

specialties, including neonatal hematology, pediatric gastroenterology,

children's and family psychology, pediatric pulmonary medicines, pediatric

urology, pediatric emergency medicines, and pediatric orthopedics, among

others. "When it comes to children's healthcare, it's in parents' best

interest to understand the tremendous differences between a general hospital

and a children's hospital," said Paul Dworkin, MD. Dr Dworkin became the

hospital's physician-in-chief in October 1998, succeeding the retired

physician-in-chief John R. Kaye, MD.

"Children's hospitals are dedicated solely to the care of children and pay

closer attention to all of their needs," Dr Dworkin said. "Our approach to

caring for the `whole child' makes a difference in children's recovery.

Children are extremely responsive to the special care and attention they

receive." Connecticut Children's also is continually involved in advanced

research on new medical procedures and treatments for children. As of March,

CCMC was the only hospital in the state using "Numby Stuff," a breakthrough

pain medication which provides a local anesthetic within ten minutes without

using a needle.

The procedure is a non-invasive and needle-free method through which a mild

electric current from a battery-operated device pushes the flow of

pain-killing lidocaine into the skin through a small patch. Numby Stuff has

been shown to dramatically reduce the pain and anxiety of children who are

afraid of needles. It was introduced to the hospital by Dr William Zempsky, an

emergency department physician at CCMC who had conducted prior research and

early clinical trials on the needle-free anesthesia after receiving a $5,000

grant from its Utah-based manufacturer, IOMED Inc.

The hospital also began using "minimally invasive surgery" last fall, a new

technique which has revolutionized the way children have operations at CCMC.

"The advantage of this type of surgery is there is a lot less pain for the

child, they have a faster recovery and there is a shorter hospital stay," said

Richard Weiss, MD, the associate director of pediatric surgery at CCMC and an

assistant professor of clinical surgery, pediatrics and emergency medicine at

the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

"Pediatric surgeons are uniquely qualified to perform this surgery," Dr Weiss

continued. "With babies and small children you have to be very precise about

where you put [the instruments] in the abdomen or the chest because all the

organs are so much closer together."

The medical center provides overnight facilities for families, including

access to kitchen and even laundry facilities, so that parents can be with

their child during the night.

Children and their families have the option of taking part in a pre-op tour of

the hospital. During these visits, kids can meet the medical staff and see

where they will be staying to help them better understand the process they

will be undergoing.

"Their biggest fears are about pain and not knowing what is going to happen to

them," explained Dr Loomis. "And many times, kids think they've done something

wrong, or that they are to blame for their illness.

"It's amazing what goes through a child's mind, so it is important to

communicate with them during the entire hospitalization process."

For additional information concerning Connecticut Children's Medical Center,

consult your family physician, telephone the hospital's general line at

860/545-8490, or visit the hospital's Web site, at http://www.ccmckids.org.