As probably everyone in Cincinnati is well aware – we are a just over a month away from completion of the new Critical Care Building, Building G, at Cincinnati Children’s. This state-of-the-art facility will dramatically increase our capacity to care for critically ill children, not only from Cincinnati, but from the surrounding tri-state region, nationally, and internationally. Our clinical square footage will substantially increase with our capacity increasing to 48 beds in our main PICU with the ability to overflow to additional beds as necessary.
While we are excited for this new clinical space, we appropriately recognize that for us to be ready to take excellent care of our patients from day 1 in the new space we need to prepare. This has led to a comprehensive training approach that has been ongoing since May of this year.
Virtual Reality Onboarding – All staff working in the PICU, as well as the other units moving to the new building, underwent a virtual reality training experience to orient everyone to the layout of the unit and the functionality of the new space. This was one of the largest virtual reality training experiences every conducted.
Latent Safety Threat Simulations – Over the months of August and September, the PICU team will be conducting over 50 hours of interprofessional simulations to confirm that our processes of care will work in the new clinical space, with adaption of our approaches as necessary. Through this process we will ensure that from the moment patients are present in the new unit we will continue to provide the same caliber of care we always have.
Interdepartmental Simulations – The PICU team plays a key role in the care of children at Cincinnati Children’s, not only within the ICU but in many other locations. We will be performing simulations with the Emergency Department Team, Surgical Team, Transport Team, and multiple inpatient units to ensure that we are ready to support them as needed in the new clinical space.
Move Simulations – Lastly, we will practice the process for moving patients from our current unit to the new clinical space safely and efficiency to ensure no delays in their care.
While we are excited for the transition to our new space, we are being diligent in ensuring that we are ready to go from day 1. This process has and will be huge financial, time, and resource investment, but one that is well worth it given our solemn role in caring for the sickest children and maintaining the high quality of care that our patients, family, and community appropriately expect from us.
