Anderson Hospital to Close Pediatric Unit
Photo courtesy of Community Hospital Anderson
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA hospital in Madison County is closing its pediatric unit in less than a week. Community Hospital Anderson tells our partners at WTHR-TV there are not enough young people who need inpatient pediatric services to justify keeping it open.
The pediatric unit will be completely shut down by July 1. The hospital says the unit has a total of eight staff members, one of which is retiring with the others being offered the chance to move elsewhere within the hospital or Community Health Network.
In a statement to WTHR, Community Anderson President & Chief Executive Officer Beth Tharp said:
"Community Hospital Anderson has an excellent team of physicians and providers who are equipped to care for our children through their primary care and pediatrics practices, allowing children to avoid hospitalizations. In doing so, we have continued to see a steep decline in our number of pediatric inpatients. This trend has been happening over several years and is not unique to our hospital, county, or state and has ultimately led us to make the decision to transition our pediatric unit, which was averaging only .4 patients per day, into additional beds for our adult medical surgical unit. Community continues to see increasing numbers on our adult medical surgical units where we often reach capacity.
Community will continue to have a pediatric hospitalist, pediatric trained nursing staff, and a pediatrician is on call 24 hours a day. We will also continue to provide the same pediatric surgical services. The level of care a pediatric patient needs will be determined between the emergency physicians and pediatricians. In cases where children need to be transferred for inpatient care, our case management team will work with patients and families to try to help with resources they need."
Read the full story from WTHR by clicking here.