New Unit for Women and Children Set to Open

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., April 27, 2017 On May 11 at 5 p.m., the community is invited to a grand opening celebration for Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Centers newly completed $10 million construction project that added 24 inpatient beds for women and 10 inpatient pediatric beds.

Officially open for patients on May 12, the new Center for Women and Children increases the number of beds at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center from 293 to 327.

During the grand opening celebration, guests will have the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Centers new pediatric area for both inpatient care and emergency care, as well as the labor and delivery unit and neonatal intensive care unit.

Located on the hospital's fourth floor, all 34 rooms in the Center for Women and Children are private and, in the pediatric unit, parents can comfortably stay overnight with their child.

This was a natural progression in expanding our continuum of care, said Becky Vernon, Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center director of women and children's services. Our entire fourth floor is already centered completely on women and children. With this construction now finished, women and children can receive all of their care on this one floor whether you are preparing to expand your family, having a baby, or have a sick child.

The fourth floor is currently home to Women's Care for pregnant mothers to receive prenatal care, the BirthCare Center to deliver babies, and a 16-bed Level II neonatal intensive care unit for sick and premature babies. In addition, pediatricians Dr. Shilpa Sulochana and Dr. Mihir Tolat are located on the fourth floor, providing on-going pediatric care. For children who need specialized care, the fourth floor is also home to Florida Hospital for Children's team of specialized neonatologists and pediatric specialists, available to provide a wide variety of care for kids, including cardiology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, pulmonology, and more.

As the only facility in the area to be designated as a Center of Excellence in Woman's Health Surgeries by the American Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery (AIMIS), Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Centers new 24 inpatient beds for women will care for those recovering from gynecological surgeries and birth.

The new 10 inpatient pediatric beds will care for children who need to stay overnight in the hospital.

Before we opened this unit, we were limited in the types of care we could provide, the conditions we could treat or the types of procedures we could do for children because we were not licensed for pediatric inpatient beds. We could only keep children for 23 hours for observation, said Vernon. Now we can provide the whole gamut of pediatric care and treat a wide variety of conditions in children whether it be for respiratory issues like asthma, or orthopedic issues like broken bones, or even ear, nose, and throat issues.

The architect for this 24,000 square-foot expansion was Orlando-based Hunton & Brady and the contractor was Robins & Morton, also from the Orlando area.

About Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center

Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center is a member of Adventist Health System, a faith-based health care organization with 46 hospital campuses and nearly 8,200 licensed beds in 10 states. Our locations include Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center in Daytona Beach and Florida Hospital Oceanside in Ormond Beach, as well as outpatient facilities in Port Orange, Daytona Beach Shores and New Smyrna Beach. With 327-beds, Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center is one of the six Florida Hospitals in Volusia and Flagler counties that composes the Florida Hospital East Florida Region. As the largest hospital system in the area, the Florida Hospital East Florida Region has 957 beds and more than 6,000 employees. With a mission to extend the healing ministry of Christ, the Florida Hospital East Florida Region collectively contributed nearly $120 million in benefits in 2015 to the underprivileged, the community's overall health and wellness and spiritual needs, and capital improvements.