Day 6: Traveling to Asheville

The 130 bed children’s hospital in western North Carolina had a very effective system. In other hospitals, I have never seen patient satisfaction surveys and other data displayed on the wall. I thought that it is an effective system to have and I think that is shows that you are providing good care across the board. I also liked how they had CHG and Foley signs on the door with when the care needs to be provided. It also lets the patients know that this needs to be done and then they can ask about it. Hospitalization affects families because it is very hard to have a loved one in the hospital. It is also hard to find coverage for work or take care of other children. It is also mentally stressful and when you also have other children at home, it can make it difficult to find others to watch the children. This organization applies family centered care by considering the patient’s needs first. I heard the nurse at the primary clinic say that the doctors have changed some of their procedures to make them better for the patients but in return, they are receiving less money overall. For someone to put money aside in a job, that says a lot for a person. They also have a very good child life team to help the parents and families. One thing that I really liked about the hospital was their projects that they are doing. In the NICU, I saw the sleep safe display. They also had an area where they have families wipe off their cell phones and put them in a bag and they can still use them, but this is keeping germs out of the NICU which in return they found that it is reducing MRSA infections in the hospital. I also saw a poster board on diaper dermatitis and learned that breast milk (0.5 mL) helps as well and that was fascinating to me. Another way that they provide family centered care by having an office that has everything in it at once. For example, they have endocrine, neuro, orthopedics etc. in one building. This is very convenient for parents because a lot of them have children with other problems and then they don’t have to drive to multiple offices. The environment in Asheville compares to Cherokee because they both have really good healthcare systems. They consider people’s culture, finances and what is going to be best for the patients. They have definitely looked at what the patients need and have provided that for them. What was different was the types of patients that they are taking care of. Cherokee doesn’t deliver babies and they do not have a peds unit. They do have primary care for peds but that is different. The children’s hospital covers 18 counties and that is a huge amount of coverage. The Cherokee hospital will see anyone in their ER but only admit Cherokee patients and if they couldn’t provide the care for the patient, they would transfer them to someone like Mission. However, Mission wouldn’t have to transfer anyone out. What stood out to me the most today was the child abuse room. I was shocked to see the number of hand prints on those walls and that they are running out of room. My heart breaks for each of those children. However, I am glad to know that they are getting help and that they offer those services to them. I hope that the children go to good foster homes and that if they have children of their own, that they will be the change. I thought that today was a very good experience of seeing another hospital and learning about how they care for their patients and that is a type of hospital that I would love to work at.