Marietta, Ohio-based Memorial Health System opened a new pediatric emergency department at its Belpre Medical Campus Jan. 2.
The eight-bed ED is a partnership between Memorial Health System and Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital and will alleviate some of the burden on the Belpre Medical Campus emergency department, which typically sees about 6,000 children every year, officials told local news outlets.
The pediatric ED will be open from 2 p.m. to midnight, hours that were selected based on the time when volumes of pediatric patients have been highest, Laura Pollauf, MD, division director of pediatric emergency medicine at Akron Children's, told The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. It will be staffed by an emergency medicine physician, two nurses, a respiratory therapist and medical assistant.
Officials with the organizations say the pediatric ED will complement a new Women and Children's Hospital slated to open at the Belpre campus in 2025.
"For a lot of your hospital journey, your care often begins in the emergency room," Scott Cantley, president and CEO of Memorial Health System, told CBS affiliate WTAP. "To lead with the pediatric ER in partnership with Akron Children's has really been a strong starting point for what will later be all that other care."