Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center Receives $15 Million Grant for New Pediatric Unit

– Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (PVHMC)has been awarded a $15 million grant from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (CHFFA) to expand access to vital healthcare services for pediatric patients across the region.

PVHMC will use the funds to construct a new state-of-the-art 15-bed pediatric inpatient unit, with an anticipated completion date of December 2022. The unit will replace the hospital’s current 34-bed pediatric unit. While the new unit will hold fewer pediatric beds, the layout of the 15-bed unit will allow the hospital to provide safer, more modernized and efficient care in primarily private rooms. It will continue to be staffed by pediatric hospitalists and neonatologists through an affiliation with CHOC Children’s.

“Our new unit will allow for pediatric patients to receive the in-hospital care they need without leaving the comfort of their community,” said Richard E. Yochum, FACHE, President and CEO of PVHMC. “This advancement supports our hospital’s mission to provide evidence-based, family-centered care, close to home.”

PVHMC’s current inpatient pediatric unit is one of only three inpatient pediatric services offered by hospitals within a 15-mile radius, which serves approximately 1.5 million residents. The new unit will expand pediatric inpatient services and improve access to higher levels of care without pediatric intensive care. This will lessen the number of patients transferred to out-of-area hospitals and give local pediatricians and primary care physicians an option for direct admissions to PVHMC. Furthermore, this will reduce the need for patients and families to leave the region for care and eliminate transportation, financial and logistical barriers that transfers often present.

The pediatric unit will support a continuum of prenatal to adolescent care already offered by the hospital, including a perinatal center; high-risk maternity care with a transport team; one of the largest birthing hospitals in California; a 53-bed, Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with a transport team; a high-risk infant follow-up clinic; two pediatric physical, occupational and speech and language therapy clinics; and primary and specialty care services.

“We’re proud to build on our commitment to provide vital healthcare for both women and children by delivering an even higher level of care to pediatric patients,” adds Yochum. “In addition to advanced technology and procedure capabilities, the unit will be designed to promote a playful and healing patient and family-centered environment.”

The pediatric unit will feature:

• Nine fully private rooms that prioritize privacy and provider access to patients and families and maintain infection control
• Three semi-private rooms that can accommodate large families, sibling admissions or surge capacity when needed
• Outdoor and indoor activity areas that can be easily accessed from any of the patient rooms
• Pediatric room designs and lighting that promote a healing environment
• Additional nursing stations that support an intermediate level of care and retain direct line visibility into all of the patient rooms
• A telemedicine program to assist physicians in consulting pediatric sub-specialty care providers, allowing for immediate, remote access to evaluate changes in patient condition and implement adjustments in treatment

The grant funding was issued under the Children’s Hospital Program of 2018, administered by the CHFFA. In November 2018, California voters approved Proposition 4, the Children’s Hospital Bond Act of 2018, enabling California to issue $1.5 billion in general obligation bonds to fund the Program. Under the Program, eight private non-profit children’s hospitals are each eligible for $135 million, five University of California Children’s Hospitals are each eligible for $54 million, and public or private nonprofit hospitals that provide pediatric services for children eligible for California Children’s Services (CCS Hospitals) are eligible for a total of $150 million for construction, renovation, furnishings and equipment, and information technology. Thirteen CCS Hospitals applied for a total of $163.5 million. After these applications were reviewed by staff and a grant committee, 11 received grant awards for a total of $127.7 million.

To learn more about pediatric care at PVHMC, visit www.pvhmc.org.