Pediatric Inpatient Unit at St. John Hospital

Roseanne Mark, RN, BSN, CPN, CCRN
Clinical Nurse Manager
313-343-4771

Child with nurse St. John's 40-bed Pediatric unit provides comprehensive care for sick infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. A multi-disciplinary team of board certified pediatricians and specialists, pediatric nurses, pharmacists, and nutritionists direct the care. Two Child-Life Specialists, who are certified teachers and counselors, help the patients keep up with their homework, enjoy playtime, and generally ease the stress and isolation that can result from a hospital stay. The inpatient unit has a playroom, library, a large collection of toys and video games, and state-of-the-art computers for both the structured and unstructured activities. The unit was recently redesigned to maintain as home-like an atmosphere as possible, with bright colors in a nautical theme, lively artwork, and specially decorated patient rooms.

Special services include:

Family centered care with psychosocial support
Comprehensive specialty medical care including: hematology/oncology, allergy, endocrinology, behavorial medicine, cardiology, nephrology, neurology, gastroenterology, and urology
Comprehensive surgical care including: general pediatric surgery, orthopedics, ears/nose/throat, ophthalmology, reconstructive, urology, gynecology and neurosurgery
Pediatric Asthma and Diabetic programs
Pediatric Supportive/Palliative Care
Pediatric chemotherapy
Non-invasive physiologic monitoring
Adolescent and young adult unit

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

In the late 1980s, the St. John Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) opened its doors to the community. The unit was established by Dr. Ali Rabbani. The close proximity of the PICU to the neighboring communities eliminated the transporting of critically ill children to distant hospitals.

Dr. Alina Witkowski M.D. is the Medical Director of the PICU and has been providing intensive care to critically ill children for the past 14 years. She began her career as an intensivist in 1997 and is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Witkowski graduated from the Medical Academy in Warsaw, Poland. She completed her pediatric residency at St. John Hospital and Medical Center and her Critical Care fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Dr. Witkowski is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. She has a special interest in acute respiratory failure, pediatric shock, management of metabolic disorders and medical management of pediatric trauma, especially traumatic brain injuries.

Her partners include Dr. Christian Bauerfeld, a pediatric intensivist and Dr. Nicholas Relich, a neonatologist with a special interest in pediatric critical care.

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit has six beds including one isolation room. Patients admitted to the PICU are monitored continuously with services provided to meet their individual needs.

The services provided in the PICU include but are not limited to:

Mechanical ventilation
Intracranial pressure monitoring
External ventriculostomy care
Cardioversion
Hemodynamic and Cardio-respiratory monitoring
Continuous intravenous vasoactive and sedative infusions
Peritoneal dialysis and continuous hemofiltration
Intensive asthma care
Multiple organ failure
Metabolic disorders, mainly diabetes
Shock: all causes
Trauma
Child abuse
Suicide attempts
Accidental Over doses
Parenteral Nutrition
Provide moderate sedation services for painful procedures like spinal taps, intrathecal chemotherapy, bone marrow aspiration, and daily burn dressing’s changes, thus saving the children from severe pain and psychological trauma.
Organ donor management
Bereavement Program
Interhospital transport
Transport of patients from other hospitals

The level of care required to meet the needs of the PICU patient is based on an established staffing matrix and is modified according to each individual patient’s needs. The staffing matrix was created using: nurse/patient ratio, acuity, census and other historical data, as well as benchmarked data. The staffing matrix is used as a guide in designating the number and mix of staff needed to provide care. The nurse/patient ratio can be 1:1; 1:2; or 1:3 depending on the needs of the patient. Currently PICU consists of an all RN staff plus a unit coordinator.

PICU employees demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patients served in the PICU. They demonstrate and possess the ability to:

Assess or collect data reflective to the patient’ status
Interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient’s requirements relative to the age-specific needs
Provide the care as described in the policies and procedures as well as care guidelines, and according to their level of ability and competence.
Provide the emotional and physical support that a family needs when a child is critically ill.

St. John Providence Health System

Pediatric Inpatient Unit at St. John Hospital

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Pediatric Burns