MOBILE, Alabama – It was Moving Day at USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital, and by 8:30 a.m., tiny Alexander “Ash” Holder, 3 months, was happily settled in his new room in the pediatric intensive care unit.
The move from the fifth floor in the old wing to the second floor in the new wing was “very easy,” said his mother, Stacie Holder, as she tended to her bright-eyed little fella in the cheerful, well-lighted room, one of 20 on the hospital’s PICU floor.
The move officially started at 6 a.m., and by 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, all patients had been moved into rooms in the hospital's new pediatric tower, a 195,000-square-foot, $72.6 million expansion that was officially dedicated in September.
Each move was carefully monitored, with nurses checking the patients off as the beds were rolled out of the elevators and down the halls.
Karen Deakins, the PICU nurse manager, said her staff got started at 5 a.m. Many volunteers were on hand for the move, she said, and even those who had the day off came in to help, “because they love the kids and were so excited to be moving here.”
Deakins has worked at USA Children’s & Women’s for 18 years, 11 as nurse manager. She helped design the PICU floor, offering ideas for the room layouts and equipment. “We’re basically four times bigger,” she said.
The rooms now have storage space and fold-out sofa beds for parents to spend the night in relative comfort, she said. “Before, they had to sleep in a chair.”
Each patient now has a transport monitor, which is used when patients are taken to have surgery, MRIs and other procedures. In the old wing, there were only two such monitors to be shared among all patients.
In the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, there are 12 private rooms, including five isolation rooms for the most fragile babies who are most sensitive to lights and sound.
On the pediatric floor, Beth Abston, therapeutic recreation specialist with the hospital’s Mapp Child and Family Life Program, was stocking the new Treehouse play area. Textbooks were set out in the ClassAct tutoring room, too.
Terri Wright, pediatric nurse manager, was among those using walkie-talkies to keep track of the patient moves and new room assignments. It was great to have the new wing, she said. “We’ve just outgrown our space over there.”
The new tower has a nautical theme, from the central lighthouse tower on the roof to the soft blue, green and sandy hues on the floors.
“Our team is wonderful; they have planned very well for this, and you can just feel the excitement in the air,” he said.