When the doors opened at The Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital in January 2015, few expected that so many young patients would walk through those doors. In 2015, more than 15,000 children benefitted from the hospital’s services—double the original expectation.
A little more than a year later, the mood is playful at the hospital as Baptist’s pediatric mascots, P.D Parrot and Polly Parrot, handed out red balloons to pediatric patients for a Valentine’s Day celebration. One little girl was also celebrating her first birthday as the hospital turned a year older.
The children’s hospital, in combination with Baptist Women’s Hospital — which delivers 5,000 babies a year — is seeing patients from “everywhere,” said Anita Vaughn, administrator and CEO of Baptist Women’s Hospital. About 72 percent have health coverage through Medicaid, the federal and state government-funded program known as TennCare in Tennessee.
“For children requiring general care, surgery or admission, we are able to provide great care close to home and return the child to their normal routine,” said Yvette DeVaughn, nurse manager of pediatrics for the Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital. “We are providing a great benefit to the children of our community in that they receive care quickly when minutes matter before being moved to the level of care required.”
No doubt, the level of need exists and plans are on the table for expansion. Baptist leadership plans to recruit more physicians, including intensivists and gastroenterologists, as well as nurses. Plans are also in the works to add existing specialties, including orthopedics; neurology and neurosurgery; ear, nose and throat; plastic surgery; general surgery; cardiology; infectious disease; and gynecology. Work is underway to install two pediatric intensive care beds by April on the third floor of the hospital, transferring two of six adult slots for children’s use, Anita said.
“You just have to be able to have that service to be able to do some extra monitoring of kids and respiratory help,” Anita said.
Other future planned expansions focus on the vacant floors above the first-floor pediatric emergency department and pediatric diagnostic area, including the addition of pediatric intensive care unit beds. Currently, there are 12 inpatient pediatric beds in the hospital, and the need for more exists.
The Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation has given $1 million to buy a two-person ambulance to transport patients from all facilities in the area, not just the 14 Baptist hospitals, but other rural hospitals, as well.