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Discussion

Downsizing Pediatric Units

I was reading multiple articles around the internet, and it got me wondering if this is happening where you are. Are hospitals downsizing or getting rid of their pediatric units in your area? One study I read talked about a loss of peds beds overall through the years, partly because peds isn't as profitable for the hospitals. Many kids are being referred or sent to bigger hospitals, especially children's hospitals. I was just wondering what the situation is like where you are.

This was also an article I read talking about the issue, though it is from 2007 and focuses on hospitalists.

Today's Hospitalist :: Getting squeezed: emerging trends in pediatric inpatient services

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    I believe in this climate of "we are a business" that facilities are getting rid of just about anything that doesn't turn a profit. As well as downsizing nurses to be able to staff units appropriately.

    And of course, if there are empty beds specific to peds patients that remain empty due to the parents desire to go to a specialty hospital, empty beds do not turn a profit. So they need to be re-utilized and filled.

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    We used to have two very large units, one was comprehensive care and the other was regular pediatrics. We have closed one floor in the past year due to low census. They don't hospitalize kids as often as they used to and many parents prefer a Children's hospital for many reasons.

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    Which explains why our children's hospital is bursting at the seams. there are two in our city, and we spent last winter taking turns being on diversion and taking in each other's patients. Mandatory OT and all.

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    About 5 years ago all the pediatric beds in my metro area were centralized at the children's hospital - which just happens to be a hospital-within-a-hospital. That means there's NO room for growth. We have the youngest demographic and the highest birthrate in the country but no way to expand capacity. The PICU/PCICU added 10 beds over the same last 5 years, and now we're having space taken away from us to make room for 5 over-capacity peds beds. It sounds very much like something that has been cobbled together; personnel to staff those beds will be pulled from other units. We're going to have a very interesting respiratory-virus season this year, I think.

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