Inpatient hospital care for children
When your child is hospitalized, their care team may include a hospitalist, a doctor who coordinates your child’s care and support services. A pediatric hospitalist is here to help your family understand your child’s care plan. This doctor is highly trained in pediatric medicine and hospital medicine. And, our children’s hospitals offer many types of pediatric specialty care.
Admission to a hospital pediatric unit
In some cases, your child’s primary care doctor or pediatric specialist may admit your child to the hospital. Based on their age and condition, your child may be admitted to one of these hospital units:
- Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
- Pediatric unit
- Pediatric ICU
- Short stay unit
Children’s hospitals offer a network of pediatric specialty care
Pediatric hospitalists coordinate inpatient hospital care with our network of pediatric specialists and hospital departments. Throughout your child’s hospital stay, your pediatric hospitalist monitors your child’s progress and coordinates your child’s care. Your care team focuses on your child and your family’s physical and emotional health. Support services may include:
- Mental health specialists
- Child-life specialists, offering support including creative arts therapy
- ECMO, which is heart-lung intensive care treatment
- Hospital-school liaison, to help coordinate make-up homework
- Palliative care
- Rehabilitation therapy
- Spiritual care offered by chaplains
Hospitalists and pediatric nurses provide patient and family education
Having a smooth transition from hospital to home is important for your family. Pediatric nurses and care teams at Ascension sites of care help make this possible. Whether your child has a complex or chronic health condition, we help family members and caregivers understand how to deliver care at home, including performing CPR. Your hospitalist coordinates your child’s care with your child’s pediatrician for follow-up labs, imaging tests, additional treatments, and rehabilitation therapy.
Once home, you will contact your child’s regular pediatrician or pediatric specialist with any additional questions about care at home or follow-up care.
