PVHMC Opens New Inpatient Pediatric Unit to Improve Access to Highly Specialized Care

To improve access to high quality pediatric care, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (PVHMC) opened its new state-of-the-art inpatient pediatric unit on April 2, 2024. The new 15-bed inpatient pediatric unit provides a higher level of services that allows patients and their families to receive care within their own community.

One of the hospital's first patients to be transferred to the new unit was 8-year-old Ender, from the City of Pomona, who was admitted for symptoms related to asthma.

The new unit features nine fully private rooms and three semi-private “sibling rooms” that can accommodate large families. All rooms have showers, storage and sofas that can be transitioned into beds to improve comfort for family members staying overnight. Nursing stations are located directly outside the patient room to support an intermediate level of care. Designed to keep the children’s wellbeing in mind, each room has a window with an outdoor view and natural light, as well as LED strips along the headboard and restroom doorframe to enhance visibility at night. Additionally, the unit has a spacious playroom for children and an activities space for adolescents.

“There’s a great need to improve access to specialized inpatient pediatric care and this is an exciting project that has been three years in the making,” said Muzna Atif, MD., medical director of inpatient pediatric services. “Having a child admitted to a hospital is a stressful experience and our new modern facility can put families at ease by providing comfortable accommodations and high quality pediatric health care within the community where they reside.”

PVHMC’s new pediatric unit is the only inpatient setting in a 12-mile radius to serve the region.

PVHMC will provide medical transport from surrounding hospitals to improve the timely transfer of pediatric patients to its facility. It also has a hospitalist program to support care for admitted patients and a telemedicine program to assist pediatricians with consultations with sub-specialists.

The pediatric unit will reinforce an already robust continuum of prenatal to adolescent care offered by the hospital, which is one of the largest volume maternity centers in California.

• Perinatal Center for high-risk pregnancies
• Maternal-fetal transport team
• 53-bed, level IIIb Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with a transport team
• High-risk infant follow-up clinic
• Children’s Outpatient Center that offers outpatient specialty neurology, pulmonary, orthopedic and cardiovascular services
• Two Milestones Centers for Child Development clinics, which offer pediatric physical, occupational and speech and language therapy
• Designation as an Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics
• Primary and specialty care services

The construction of the new pediatric inpatient unit was made possible by a $15 million dollar grant from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (CHFFA) to expand access to vital healthcare services for pediatric patients across the region.

To learn more about children’s services at PVHMC, click here.