Ailing East Valley kids get more care

Each day, on average, 24 children are brought into the world at Banner Children’s Hospital in Mesa. That’s a baby every hour. Morning, noon and night.

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By the numbers

Small wonder, then, that the children’s hospital at Banner Desert Medical Center needs to expand.

Almost 18 months after announcing its plans, the hospital finally breaks ground Thursday on the $328 million project.

And along with the sevenstory patient tower, more than 100 additional pediatric beds and an expanded emergency department, the new construction brings dozens of new pediatric specialists and their teams to the East Valley.

“All of the individuals who take care of our children specialize in pediatrics,” said pediatric administrator Rhonda Anderson. “It’s what the child and the family needs.”

So for the first time in the East Valley, kids will have their own radiology department. They won’t have to travel to Phoenix to see a pediatric plastic surgeon. And they’ll get outpatient treatment at a center designed just for them.

Already, the children’s hospital has a separate pediatric emergency department, one of just three in the state. But its 15 beds are stretched thin, particularly during the winter months. Sometimes, children wait 24 hours or more to be admitted, all the while tying up ER beds that children in the waiting room need.

Because of space constraints and the shortage of specialists, children are sometimes sent to other local hospitals, or even out of state.

Because of long waits, some families just give up.

“If they’re waiting too long, they’ll leave,” Anderson said. “We want to be able to serve everybody. When they’re sick, they should be able to be seen.”

The hospital also delivers more babies than any other in Arizona, with a neonatal intensive care unit that’s certified to care for the sickest babies.

But even the NICU had become outdated. The expansion will allow for private rooms that new research shows help the growth and development of both babies and parents.

Not long ago, NICU babies were all together in a huge room with bright lights and beeping monitors and 24/7 commotion.

“We went from that football field to six pods of six babies,” Anderson said. “And that was the science at the time.”

The unit will grow to 104 beds from 65, including 39 private rooms.

Tara Ross knows all too well what it’s like to bring children to the pediatric ER.

Her daughter spent three weeks in the hospital in January 2006 because of appendicitis and complications from her appendectomy, including two trips through the ER.

Two months earlier, her son had his tonsils removed, then came back to the emergency department with dehydration. He spent the next four days there.

“I would never go anywhere else,” said Ross, of Mesa. “It was definitely a changing experience for me and my kids.”

Six-year-old Nathaniel was so struck by his time in the hospital that, once home, he fetched his piggy bank and gave his mom all his money.

“We need to buy some stuff for the hospital,” he told her.

And so they did. The family has since delivered 200 boxes to Banner Children’s Hospital, stuffed with toys, coloring books and other kid diversions donated from family and friends.

Though she doesn’t plan on having any more children admitted to the hospital, Ross said it’s nice to know it’s there.

In March, Phoenix Children’s Hospital broke ground on a speciality and urgent care facility in Mesa.

The $5.2 million project, scheduled to open this fall at Southern Avenue and Higley Road, will be just north of the new Banner Gateway Medical Center, also set to open in the fall. It will provide followup care to children treated at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, as well as 24-hour pediatric urgent care.

Pediatric specialists from across the country have joined Banner Children’s. In addition to bringing their expertise to private practice and hospital rounds, they’ll be on call for the ER.

Dr. Mark Flood moved here from Houston in October and has lured a colleague to help him develop the hospital’s pediatric orthopedics and spine surgery program. He hopes to recruit three more physicians, including a specialist in sports medicine.

“We have a vision,” Flood said. “We want to help the kids.”

He also looks forward to working with pediatric residents and earning research funding.

In a nod to the different stages of childhood, the pediatric tower will be organized by age group, with an infant floor, a toddler floor and so on. Two of the seven floors — the cancer floor and the pediatric ICU — will be all ages.

Other pediatric specialties include oncology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, neurology, urology and behavioral health.

Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein brings the East Valley its first pediatric plastic surgeon. He also specializes in craniofacial surgery, operating on the face and skull.

Goldstein, who came from the Case Western Reserve University Hospitals of Cleveland, said the Valley is long overdue for more pediatric services and hospital beds.

“Everyone’s excited about the growth opportunities,” Goldstein said. “Everyone sees that we’re filling a void.”