Patient Rooms in the PICU

Private Patient Care Rooms

The new Reynolds PICU at Arkansas Children's Hospital features 22 private patient rooms, a family-focused improvement over the 19-bed open ward of the previous unit. Spacious rooms feature large windows with sweeping views of the state capitol and downtown Little Rock. Equipment columns suspend from the ceiling to make the rooms flexible and allow PICU staff to arrange bedside equipment for the patient's best care and comfort. With a daybed, bathroom, TV/VCR and storage space in each room, parents are able to stay at their child's bedside.

Patient rooms also have adequate workspace for the large equipment that is often necessary in critical care situations. In addition to ventilators, monitors and other life-support systems, each of the rooms is equipped for:

• In-room dialysis treatment
• Advanced monitoring including video EEG, which allows physicians to correlate clinical events with brain activity
• Controlled airflow to minimize the spread of air-borne infections
• Fully networked nursing stations that provide computer access to clinical information

Isolation and Procedure Rooms

Although every patient room in the new Reynolds PICU can serve as an isolation area, there are four large rooms specially designed for that purpose. Overlooking a terrace garden, the rooms are fully equipped for the highest level of pediatric critical care. There are also two special procedure rooms:

• Research Room - A hallmark of the unit is a room uniquely designed for research opportunities. Metabolic monitors, pain/stress monitors, a physiology lab and other testing equipment will be available for clinical studies or for patients with rare disorders.
  
  
• Procedure and Resuscitation Room - This room is equipped for emergency procedures. Emergency procedures for ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) and other invasive procedures can easily be accomplished in this specialized space.