Equipment investments at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. and visits to Prince George from pediatric specialists have already prevented 2,000 visits from sick children in the area to B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver.
On average, the cost to a Prince George family traveling to Vancouver to take a child to B.C. Children's Hospital is about $1,300. About 2,200 families from northern B.C. made the trip every year.
"We see a lot of kids in Vancouver who need specialized care from this part of the province, so much so that... we've invested almost $1 million in equipment at the hospital here so we can care for the kids as close to their homes as we possibly can," said B.C. Children's Hospital president Larry Gold. "It's been hugely successful. We have about a dozen specialists who come up [to Prince George] on a regular basis. Instead of having to come to Vancouver, those kids are seen and cared for close to their home community."
Demand for pediatric health specialists around the world has created a short supply of medical expertise and B.C. Children's offers a level of care not available in the province's regional hospitals. But a provincial program that began in 2005 -- Child Health BC -- has created an integrated system to share resources among the five health authorities. It brings doctors and nurses to the patients for specialized clinics and it's changing the way smaller-city hospitals deliver health care to pediatric patients.
During his trip to Prince George last week to consult with staff at Northern Health and UHNBC, Gold met a 16-year-old Dawson Creek boy named Elliot with a congenital heart defect . For his entire life, until UHNBC started bringing in a heart specialist from B.C. Children's, Elliot had to travel to Vancouver for doctor visits. Now he receives his check-ups in Prince George.
"The specialists come up and work side-by-side with local folks at the hospital, so it's really a team partnership and it really works," said Gold. "Because children's health is so complex, it's not just about the doctor, it's about a team of people, and it's not just about B.C. Children's coming up and teaching the folks in Prince George, they teach us. We have all the fancy equipment and all the specialists but the physicians and nurses here in this community are on the frontline, taking care of really sick kids, sometimes by themselves, and they should be very proud of the work they do."
Three or four times each month, specialists from B.C. Children's treat an average of 160 regional patients at UHNBC, offering ambulatory clinical care in such issues as neurology, rheumatology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroentology, or orthopedics. The clinics involve nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, imaging specialists and lab technologists.
"Kids don't get sick at our convenience, so the relationship between the staff here and the staff in Vancouver means they're on the phone with each other on a regular basis," said Gold. "We're creating standards of care and we want to follow a pattern of how we take care of these kids. That standard of care should follow that child from BC Children's Hospital all the way to their homes in Prince George or Dawson Creek. Instead of trying to invent it every time it happens, Child Care BC puts on paper what the system should look like and makes investments to make that system come alive and it's doing that all over the province."
In January 2007, UHNBC opened a new $5 million pediatric unit, part of its Maternal-Child Centre of Excellence, a $12.5-million project to redevelop and expand health facilities for women, newborns and children. At 1,800 square metres, the new pediatric ward is double the size of the unit it replaced.
B.C. Children's is one of only 45 hospitals in North America and 16 in Canada focused exclusively on treating young patients. It sees 43,000 patients annually. The hospital is planning construction of a $150 million, 50,000 square metre building for acute care treatment adjacent to the existing Oak Street facility to start next year, with completion by early 2018.
The B.C. Children's Hospital Foundation is trying to raise $50 million for Child Health BC. Its annual Children's Miracle Network telethon two weeks ago raised almost $18 million. Ronald McDonald House, which provides nearby accommodations for families, just broke ground on an expansion from 12 rooms to 73.
