by Gayle Schrier Smith, MD
As the mother of five, I have come a long way in cultivating my parenting abilities. My children teach me something new every day, and for the most part I’m always grateful. I remember when my youngest was born. I thought I owned every baby gadget ever made only to receive an electric wipe-warmer as a gift. “What an amazing idea!” I decided, only to discover that the thing never seemed to be cycling heat when I was changing diapers. It dried out my baby wipes and convinced me that I definitely didn’t need it. But then there was the rocker-glider with the matching ottoman. How could I have made it through all my colicky babies in my grandmother’s rocking chair when this engineering marvel had been invented?
Jon Kabat Zinn, author of Everyday Blessings: The Art of Mindful Parenting, would remind me that we cannot need something we don’t even know we’re doing without. And he would be partially correct. The useless wipe-warmer and the amazing rocking glider were certainly not things I needed. I survived just fine without either of them for ten years of mothering. Just like I survive without a full service hospital for children. Wait, did she say hospital?
In addition to being a full time mother, I am also a full time pediatrician. I have served the health care needs of children in Richmond for twenty years, and not a day goes by where I don’t wish for a real children’s hospital for my patients. I’d like a rocking glider sort of hospital that feels designed for smooth, nurturing child-centered health care. I don’t want a wipe warmer kind of hospital that means well but can’t get the job done as children deserve.
If you ask any ten mothers, eight of them will tell you that we do have a Children’s Hospital, and they would be correct, sort of…We have a beautiful and amazing facility on Brook Road that continues to serve the special needs of a small percentage of children just as it did when it was founded in 1917 and called The Crippled Children’s Hospital. We also have three hospital systems (VCU, HCA and Bon Secours) that equally share the work of making room for children in their adult centered facilities. They all do a good job providing the needed care for children.
Sadly, the best NICU nurses work for one facility, the best pediatric EEG tech works for another, and the most amazing respiratory therapist for kids works at still another. Too bad. When my daughter was stillborn, we were fortunate to be in the hospital with the NICU. When my son needed an EEG, we lucked out again. When my daughter had pneumonia, not so fortunate, but we made due.
Imagine all the best providers under one roof, focusing their gifts and their abilities to care for sick children in a brand new facility. Imagine kid friendly everything, from patient rooms that welcomed a parent to stay, all the way down to x-ray and lab services geared specifically for children.
It is a fact that every other city the same size as Richmond has seen fit to build this facility for their children. Is it right to ask our children to do without the children’s hospital they deserve? Could it be that the mothers in our community haven’t been made aware of the need?
Chapter Two: my next article…why we really aren’t doing as “fine” as we could be doing for our children’s inpatient health care and how we have tried in the past to build a hospital for them. Check back soon to learn more. Our children are hoping that you will.
Gayle Schrier Smith, MD is a partner and physician at Richmond’s Partners in Pediatrics.
