Family Advisory Council and Pediatrics Administrator Ted Chambers walk and talk through plans for moving patients into a new Hopkins Children’s in 2012. 

The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center at Johns Hopkins won’t be opening for another two years, but it’s not too early to be planning how to move young patients from the current hospital into that new building. That was the message from Pediatrics Administrator Ted Chambers in a conference room in the original Johns Hopkins Hospital to members of the Family Advisory Council (FAC) at their monthly meeting in February. And his key questions for the parents?

“What are your concerns? What are you thinking about? What, if any, worries do you have?” Chambers said. “We’re looking for your advice on how to go about this.”

There was no shortage of responses. One parent asked how the most critically ill patients would be moved into the new building. “What if I feel my child cannot be moved?” she wondered.

Another parent suggested a staged move over a week or two, rather than the planned two-day move: “Intuitively, it seems to make sense to stretch it out.”

The subject was a new one for the FAC, but the spirited exchange that followed similar to what has been happening at these monthly Wednesday night meetings since the FAC was reorganized and re-energized with the launching of a new family centered care initiative in 2007. Before then, more hospital staff then parents made up groups like the FAC. While parents and families have always had a presence and influence at Hopkins Children’s, Chambers noted, never before had their thoughts and ideas been solicited, considered and incorporated into policy to this extent. Since the initiative was launched, family rounds were instituted and a full-time Parent Advisor hired to help enhance communication and interaction between parents and staff. Other family-friendly initiatives are underway, and now parents make up the majority of the FAC.

 “And once a month we have this give and take on issues ranging from infection control and patient safety to family amenities in the new hospital,” noted Pam Griffin, co-chair of the FAC and Hopkins Children’s new full-time Parent Advisor. “Now we’re offering input on moving patients safely into the new building, so parents’ ideas are valued and, more importantly, implemented.”

In preparing for the move, Chambers reported, the hospital will reduce its patient census to 70 percent of normal levels, and decrease elective surgeries, among other measures. Also, staff will move into the new hospital during the six months leading up to the official opening. That way staff can become oriented to the new environment, and new medical equipment calibrated and tested. A number of pilots, including new and “quieter” nurse-call and alarm-monitoring systems are already underway.

 “The idea is to keep the units quiet, but these are such critical functions that no one feels comfortable just moving in and installing them,” Chambers said. “We have to try them in our existing facilities, learn from them before we move in, and modify them if we need to.”

Parent and family input, Chambers stressed, is especially important in physically moving the patients into the new hospital. Three teams of nurses are being formed to prepare patients for the move, to transport the patients, and to receive the patients in their new units. Way stations along the route to the new hospital, he added, will be staffed to further ensure safe transport. He doesn’t foresee any patients who will not be able to be moved, though some will be difficult to move.

 “We want to be very careful in looking at the children who are in the house at the time, and making sure that we’re being sensitive to the clinical needs of the child during the move,” Chambers aid. “This is where families and partnerships are really critical, because we need your thoughts in our interaction with our physicians and nurses in how we get ready for that move.”
 
There was some debate over staging the move, Chambers added, but at the end of the day the consensus was an efficient streamlined weekend move for both the benefit of patients and staff: “Other children’s hospitals that have gone through this say the safest move is a one- or two-day move. When you stretch it out, you also stretch out the staff and equipment and patients may lose the supports they need.”

For the most part, Chambers said, the design for the new hospital is set with a focus on family-friendly amenities and support areas, alcoves and lounges, as well as state-of-the-art clinical features. Parents, he added, can be especially helpful now in orienting new families to the new building, as well as creating new programs – or enhancing existing ones – to improve their child’s experience.

“So the challenge for you is not in redesigning the building, but in thinking about how our systems work,” Chambers said. “How are we doing in admitting patients? How are we doing in processes in which we interact with parents? That’s the invitation to you, thinking of better ways we can be of service as we prepare for the new building."