Catering to children

New emergency room unit serves small patients

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Carved out of the existing emergency room, the newly opened Summerlin Hospital pediatric emergency room unit has four beds and can handle five to six patients at a time.

There is also an isolation room. This is not the first pediatric ER in the city but it is the first on the west side of town.

At the helm of Summerlin Hospital's new unit is Dr. Erik Deurell, medical director of the pediatric ER.

"A lot of people think of kids as being small adults," he said. "But they're not. A child may be smaller but, for example, they lose body heat faster. In the ER, there's really quite a range (of physical development) that you deal with, from neonatal babies to older children. It's an entirely different medical conundrum."

Abbe Elwell, a fourth-grade teacher and single mother who lives at Desert Shores is already a fan of the new pediatric ER. When her daughter Allie, 11, came home from school complaining of a really bad stomachache, an alarm went off in her brain.

"My mother, three years ago, had a burst appendix and had to have emergency surgery," Elwell said. "When Allie said she was having abdominal pains, that was the first thing that came to mind."

She called the pediatric group which normally saw her daughter and was advised to wait an hour to see if things got better. They didn't.

Elwell rushed her daughter to Summerlin Hospital.

"Can you imagine if I had to drive all the way to the center of town?" she said.

In the emergency room, Allie was seen within 10 minutes and the staff impressed the family as being well-suited for reassuring sick children.

"I'd rate the experience a 10," Elwell said. "Because of, hands down, the staff. They talked to the mom on a mom's level and they talked to the child, Allie, on a child's level."

For those times when more involved care is required, the unit includes kid-friendly touches like turtle masks for breathing treatments, strawberry-scented anesthesia masks and a motorized car in which children can drive themselves to surgery.

The surgery section also has a separate area for kids in pre-operation, providing coloring books that describe what happens during and after a surgery. There are rocking chairs and toys for them, too.

The surgical staff waits to insert IVs in children until they are under anesthesia, to mitigate the stress of being stuck with a needle.

"And special exceptions are made in regards to visitors before and after a child has surgery," said Stacy Lee-Harrington, marketing director. "So that kids leave for surgery and wake up after anesthesia with the familiar faces of their parents."

The planning for the new unit began in October. Deurell arrived from Boston in late May.

Because the hospital's pediatric program was already established for several years, much of the equipment was already on hand. Still, Summerlin Hospital purchased roughly $75,000 worth of equipment for the pediatric ER/surgery department, including special scopes and cameras used just for children.

Ryan Nishihara is a pediatrician whose practice, Meadows Pediatrics, 653 Town Center Drive Suite 200, is very busy. He said he sees a number of children in need of emergency care, an estimated three to four times a week.

He cited the convenience of having the new ER unit in Summerlin when time is of the essence. "And Dr. Deurell, he's awesome with people," Nishihara said. "I always ask my patients about their experiences (with emergency room doctors). One parent said, 'He even took the time to draw what was wrong with my child.' "

For now, the pediatric ER unit operates from 2 p.m. to midnight. Those hours may be expanded if the need is seen. The hospital also is developing a pediatric intensive care unit, expected to be operational by the end of the year.