Wesley children’s hospital a commitment to both kids and physicians

When I’m asked about myself, I generally respond that I am a father, a husband, the chief operating officer of Wesley Medical Center and now, its interim president and CEO.

That order is intentional – there is nothing more important in my life than my five children.

That’s why, as a father, I was so thrilled to announce plans to build a dedicated children’s hospital right here on the Wesley campus.

Too many times, I’ve heard from parents who have had to travel three or more hours to a children’s hospital in Kansas City or Oklahoma City to receive a level of care they should expect in a community like Wichita. Those trips are more than an inconvenience or a financial hardship (although those factors can be significant).

What really impacts those parents is having to travel with a child who is sick, or hurting, or scared. As a community, we can and should do better.

First and foremost, this children’s hospital project will provide a safe, welcoming environment for our pediatric patients and their families. Everything from the design of the building to the menu for room service will be designed with kids – and parents – in mind.

We know, for example, that parents will want to stay in the room with their child. We want them to – having the parents close reduces the child’s anxiety and makes it easier for us to provide treatment. So we’re designing pediatric rooms that allow parents to comfortably sleep near their child.

And with a hospital the size of Wesley, we know we will have pediatric patients that visit other areas of our facility – they may come in through our pediatric emergency room or need a scan in our imaging department. So we’re working with our child life specialists to build plans and processes that extend this kid-focused environment of care everywhere on our campus that touches a pediatric patient or family.

These are all critical components of providing the highest level of care we can to our young patients. But of equal importance, this new hospital also will help us attract additional sub-specialty physicians to add to our already robust pediatric services.

It is difficult to recruit many pediatric specialists, as there are few physicians willing and able to undergo the required extensive education and training. What often sways those physicians is seeing a hospital make a tangible commitment to pediatrics.

Building a dedicated children’s hospital will cost more than $28 million, but that’s a commitment we’re happy to make if it will help specialty physicians travel here – and prevent Wichita kids from having to travel elsewhere.

We are already seeing the medical community respond. In the past few weeks alone, we’ve been able to recruit a pediatric surgeon, a pediatric intensivist and two pediatric cardiologists. And there are more to come.

Wesley has demonstrated a commitment to our region’s youngest patients for many years. We have the region’s largest and most experienced neonatal intensive care unit, and we recently completed a $36 million renovation of our women’s hospital. These are just a couple of the reasons we deliver more than 6,000 babies a year and are known as the region’s “baby hospital.”

Soon, we’ll be known as the region’s children’s hospital as well. As a dad, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This story was originally published February 14, 2015 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Wesley children’s hospital a commitment to both kids and physicians."