OHCA Spring/Summer 2016

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The Oregon Caregiver Spring/Summer 2016 8
J anette was brought to the Providence Medical Center for
Medically Fragile Children before she was one-year-old.
When laying on her stomach, her back arched to such
an extreme that the back of her head touched her bottom.
With time, and new and advanced therapy and medications,
her muscles began to relax, and she could comfortably sit
in a wheelchair. Later, aquatic therapy, not commonly used
in this setting, was added to her routine. While in the pool,
she reached out and put her hands in front of herself for the
first time.
Innovations made Janette’s improvement possible.
At Providence Center For Medically Fragile Children,
children from around the country get care that is
unmatched anywhere else. These children can’t walk and
some of them can’t speak. Many of the children are there
because of rare diseases, traumatic births, or neurological
disorders. Some have been there since infancy.
“We have an interdisciplinary team that provides care for
these kids at all levels with the goal of helping them be the
best they can be,” said Chief Nurse Sally Cochrane.
The staff includes a direct-care nursing staff, physical
therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, a
chaplain, and social workers that work with the kids on a
Innovating With Care and Technology
regular basis. There is also a recreational therapy department
that organizes field trips and volunteer activities with the
children.
“It’s a very holistic approach to how we care for these kids,”
said Cochrane.
Executive Director of Children’s Developmental Health
JoAnn Vance said that one of the therapies they have
expanded and advanced over the recent years is aquatic
therapy. “We’re able to use a large Jacuzzi within our own
facility and then we also go out to Macadam pool. We
have volunteers that come, we have therapeutic rec, and we
have occupational therapy involved with that. Some of the
outcomes for these kids are that they’ve actually learned to
stand and pivot and, at the age of 21, instead of having to go
to an adult group home, they’ve been able to go home with
their families,” said Vance.
Keeping the families comfortably connected to their
children is another important part of Providence’s
innovative care plan. The hospital houses an apartment
for families that live out of the immediate area and hosts
regular family meetings, a family BBQ in the summer, and
a family newsletter. Additionally, families are invited to join
all the field trips and receive a high amount of contact with
the chaplain and medical director.
Providence’s care plan includes helping children
communicate with their families and with the staff using
inventive techniques and new technology. For “yes or
no” questions, the children are taught to answer with
sign language. For more advanced communications,
augmentative computers can help the children speak. Using
eye gaze computers and switches, the children can lock in
on an icon and then the fixated icon will say a specific word
or phrase. “The kids can go through these pictures, or word
choices, to say something. ‘I want to go to bed,’ ‘I don’t want
to go to school,’ ‘shut up’ for the teenagers; there’s lots of
choices,” said Vance.
One technology that the center is preparing to use is
telehealth, which allows caretakers to work with the
pediatric intensivist for coverage of the children in the
PROVIDENCE CENTER
for medically fragile children
Karen Nagao, occupational therapist, leads aquatic therapy for a Providence Medical
Center for Medically Fragile Children (CMFC) resident and her mom in the onsite Jacuzzi.
Photo credit:LukeDeLong