Intermountain Press Release

Salt Lake City—Primary Children's opens new oncology unit

This week Primary Children's Medical Center opened a new nursing unit for children with suppressed immune systems, a unit that features advanced technology for keeping a clean environment, coupled with amenities to make patients and families more comfortable.

This new 24-bed unit is the first complete oncology unit in the state to use hepa-filtration. In the past only the four-bed bone marrow transplant unit used the advanced hepa filtration. This air filtering system will keep potential contaminants from immunocompromised patients, who are vulnerable to infections. In addition, now bone marrow transplant patients can use any of the oncology patient rooms, providing the hospital with more flexibility in the number of transplant patients that may be treated at any one time.

Patient rooms were designed to bring the world to the patients, since they must remain in their rooms during their inpatient hospitalizations. Patient rooms have an entertainment center that allows patients to watch TV or their favorite DVD, play games or log on to the internet to email friends or download homework from school.

The technology has been blended with elements that provide a healing environment, such as soft lighting, rooming in for parents, and parent showers and restrooms on the unit. There are also laundry facilities on the unit and a nutrition room with storage for each family to bring the child's favorite food from home.

The unit was designed with input from patient families as well as staff. The decor theme, "earth, wind, fire and water," appeals to the broad range of patients who will be treated in the unit -- infants through patients in their early 20's. Patients, family and staff painted ceramic tiles featuring the theme that are mounted at each nursing station.

The staff will benefit from bedside computers for the healthcare team in each patient room and an enhanced nurse call system for monitoring patients. Since doors to patient rooms must be kept closed, the central nursing station also connects to heart monitors in patient rooms to closely monitor the sicker patients.

The Immunocompromised Care Services Unit has 1,183 admissions each year. Patients treated on this unit include newly diagnosed cancer patients, patients receiving inpatient chemotherapy treatment, bone marrow transplant patients and liver transplant patients.

Primary Children's treats approximately 140 patients per year with newly diagnosed cancer and 30 patients per year who receive bone marrow transplants.

The unit is staffed by nine physicians certified in hematology/oncology, three bone marrow transplant physicians, three fellows, bone marrow and oncology nurse practitioners and 65 nurses. The oncology team also includes medical social workers, parent support staff, health unit coordinators and technologists.

Primary Children's Medical Center is the only full-service pediatric hospital serving five states in the Intermountain West equipped to handle the most complex illnesses and injuries. It treats children birth through age 20 and serves as a referral center for all of Utah and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Montana. PCMC is a nonprofit hospital owned by Intermountain Health Care.