Children and families in southern Duval and northern St. Johns Counties now have access to top-ranked emergency pediatric care, with the Dec. 30 opening of the new Wolfson Children’s Emergency Center at Baptist Medical Center South.
The 8,100-square-foot, full-service center at 14550 Old Saint Augustine Road, Jacksonville, is located beside the existing adult emergency room at Baptist South. Staffed by a team of double-board-certified pediatric emergency physicians, pediatric emergency nurses, pediatric respiratory therapists and pediatric-trained radiologic technologists, the team is connected 24/7 with a larger team of pediatric emergency and pediatric specialty physicians at the main Wolfson Children’s Hospital campus in downtown Jacksonville.
“We know this segment of the community is the fastest growing,” Baptist South Hospital President Nicole Thomas said Dec. 27 as workers put the finishing touches on the new addition. In southern Duval and northern St. Johns Counties, she said they expect 265,000 new people to move into the area in the next 10 years. “Today, Baptist South is the busiest labor and delivery unit, delivering over 2,700 babies a year,” she said. “We want to continue to provide care for the entire family at this campus of Baptist South.” She said they expect to serve 10,000 pediatric patients in the first year.
Wolfson Children’s Hospital consistently ranks among U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals, and it was recently named one of the top 10 children’s hospitals in the country by Leapfrog Group, a quality assessment organization.
The new pediatric emergency room at Baptist South is the sixth Wolfson Children’s Emergency Center in Northeast Florida.
“It’s important to us as a community-owned health system to provide care close to the community where people live,” Thomas said. Speaking to residents in the area, she said Baptist South discovered that parents seeking emergency medical service for their children were driving past the hospital as they looked for a Wolfson emergency room. “So, we created that dedicated experience for families right here at Baptist South, close to home,” she said.
Baptist Health is an umbrella organization comprised of five hospitals, four adult and Wolfson Children’s Hospital in downtown Jacksonville. Wolfson is a regional provider, with patients coming from as far as Georgia.
The main Wolfson downtown campus saw 5,000 patients in December in the emergency room there, Thomas said, so the new facility “will serve as another convenient portal and that should reduce wait times across the area.”
The Wolfson ER at Baptist South is fully equipped for a wide variety of needs, from accidents of all kinds, to asthma to broken bones, and any illness, serving newborns to age 17.
The facility was designed to be kid-friendly in every aspect possible, with an ocean-theme design throughout featuring beautiful, colorful sea animals in a serene and soothing underwater setting.
In the entrance waiting area, a colorful mural covers one wall and each of the 12 exam rooms features a picture of a pretty sea creature. “The underwater fish-theme is designed to be a distraction, to reduce anxiety as we deliver emergency care for children,” Thomas said.
There are also wagons on hand to transport children rather than in wheelchairs, when feasible, and each exam room is equipped with iPads for patients and their siblings to use when they are in there. Even the restrooms are family friendly, with large and small toilets side by side, with children’s needs in mind.
The facility is also staffed with child life-specialists during peak hours, master’s-prepared professionals who have been trained in ways to distract children who are going through unfamiliar and scary procedures, which is unique to Wolfson, Thomas said.
“It goes to show the level of detail involved in making the experience an excellent one during a trying time.”
