Prisma Health Children’s Hospital is continuing to expand its services at community hospitals by offering around-the-clock hospital units just for children, with a new satellite location that opened at Greer Memorial Hospital on Monday.
The unit offers children and families specialized pediatric care for a broad range of diagnoses including respiratory illnesses, asthma flare-ups, dehydration, fever in young infants, jaundice and skin infections. The unit will care for children ages newborn to 18 who don’t require intensive care unit-level treatment or subspeciality care.
Satellite pediatric units are already open at Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital and Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital. Prisma Health also has full-scale Children’s Hospitals in Columbia and Greenville.
“Creating these satellite units in Greer, Seneca and Sumter makes it possible for us to offer exceptional child-oriented care for common pediatric illnesses, only closer to home,” said Dr. Robin LaCroix, medical director of Prisma Health Children’s Hospitalin theUpstate. “A child is more than just a small adult and requires unique care and expertise; we hope to provide that in these special hospitalization units. I’m excited for the families to have access to this 24-hour care in their own communities.”
The new unit at Greer offers pediatric hospitalists, specially trained pediatric nurses and pediatric respiratory therapists as well as telehealth consultations and Child Life Services, which help children and their families cope with potential stress during a hospital stay.
Greer Memorial Hospital is also home to a Level II nursery to support the nearly 1,000 babies born there each year. The team is led by Dr. Teresa Williams, a physician who is board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics. She has worked at Greer Memorial Hospital for the past five years caring for newborns and adults and now serves as the hospital’s director of pediatrics.
“I’m thrilled to bring the Children’s Hospital care commitment to the families in Greer,” said Williams. “Knowing that our specially trained team will be available around-the-clock to help children will hopefully be a real comfort to families who may have previously had to travel further for that extra level of treatment,” she said.
All units are designed to replicate the design and themes found in the main campuses of Prisma Health Children’s Hospitals, which feature expertise and leading-edge technology but also child-sized furniture, soothing colors and the friendly face of mascot Buddy the Bear.