Acute Pediatric Care

After a serious illness, severe injury or certain surgeries, acute care at Cottage Children's Medical Center helps your child recover. He or she will get short-term care in the emergency department or an intensive care unit from highly experienced pediatric specialists dedicated to helping your child get well.

There are a total of 38 all-private rooms in the acute pediatrics units. The former unit had only 17 beds and some shared rooms. All rooms are equipped with sleeping areas for parents and child-size bathtub for patients.

Who Needs Acute Care?

Your child needs acute care—typically received as a patient in a hospital—following:

• Intense difficulty breathing
• Major surgery
• Premature birth
• Severe infections, including sepsis (blood poisoning)
• Traumatic injuries

Well-Rounded Treatment

Serious injuries and illnesses affect your child in many ways. Through acute care at Cottage Children's Medical Center, a multidisciplinary group of pediatric professionals delivers the attention and treatment your child needs.

Our specialists gather each morning for meetings called rounds to review your child’s current health and update the treatment plan. Your child’s care team members may include:

• Child life specialist – Helps your child prepare for and cope with medical procedures and side effects
• Pediatric case management
• Pediatric critical care physicians, or intensivists - Refers you to pediatric oncologists and communicates directly with them throughout your child’s treatment
• Pediatric registered dietitian – Plans healthy meals and counsels your family on nutrition
• Pediatric occupational therapists
• Pediatric physical therapists
• Pediatric respiratory therapists
• Pediatric social workers - Offers counseling and referrals to community resources

You’re welcome to participate in rounds, ask questions and get to know the professionals caring for your child. If you can’t attend, we’ll talk to you by phone or in person afterward to explain the day’s goals for your loved one.

Continuity of Care

When it’s time for your child to return home, the Cottage acute care team will work closely with your primary physician to develop a follow-up outpatient treatment plan. We’ll help make it as easy as possible to keep getting care, which enhances your child’s progress toward a successful recovery.

Custom Lighting Features

All of the patient rooms feature fun lighting, which can be controlled by children to change the color of the light around the room and to adjust the intensity of the light.

The flexible and colorful lighting gives young patients an enhanced sense of control over their surroundings. While patients are recovering, they rarely are in control of their environment, their treatment, or their pain, and as a result they lose any sense of control over their lives.

Adjusting the lighting helps them maintain a sense of control and can have a positive effect on their healing.