Children’s hospital adds nine beds

A new nine-bed wing at Maria Fareri Children”™s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center will relieve some pressure on the overoccupied hospital and allow it to care for an additional 450 to 500 children each year, according to hospital staff.

The 8-year-old hospital in Valhalla recently unveiled its Arlene and Arnold Goldstein Family Foundation Athletics Neighborhood, a sports-themed ward where more seriously ill and injured children will receive advanced care and more intensive monitoring before and after operations.

The $6.5 million project transformed space formerly occupied by the Ronald McDonald House for patients”™ families and a pediatric residency program office. The hospital has added 14 to 15 employees to help staff the unit.

Opening in 2004 with 104 beds, Maria Fareri Children”™s Hospital twice has expanded and now has 127 beds for inpatients.

“Since 2005, it has continuously been overoccupied,” said Michael Gewitz, physician-in-chief of the children”™s hospital. “It”™s been over 100 percent. This will help.”

Gewitz said Maria Fareri annually discharges 5,000 to 6,000 patients, whose average hospital stay is four to five days. In addition to Westchester residents, children come from Fairfield County, Conn., northern New Jersey, “all over the Hudson Valley and other parts of the world,” he said.

Gewitz said health planners underestimated the need for pediatric hospital beds when the children”™s hospital was first proposed.

“We can”™t handle all the children in the Hudson Valley who need hospitalization,” he said. He said Maria Fareri staff provides support to community hospitals in the area to meet children”™s care needs locally.

The hospital”™s long-term planning calls for an additional 10 to 20 beds. Given space constraints, “That”™s going to be a challenge,” Gewitz said.

The new unit has single-patient rooms with private bathrooms and sleeping accommodations for parents.