This video is no longer available.
Leaders at Inova Loudoun Hospital cut the ribbon Friday on a 42,000-square-foot space for new children鈥檚 and medical units. It’s a $30 million project they hope will make hospital stays feel a bit more like home.
The initiative has been in the works since 2022, and the new sixth floor includes 48 private patient rooms that will also support pediatric care. Thirty-six rooms will be used as medical/surgical beds, and the other 12 will be for pediatric patients, with six additional rooms that could be used as pediatric overflow beds.
Susan Carroll, president of Inova Loudoun Hospital, said during a news conference there are 鈥渙nly two hospitals from here to Richmond that serve pediatric patients鈥� with inpatient units, 鈥渉ence the reason why we need to continue to grow.鈥�
Cindy Defrancesco, child life specialist at the hospital, said the floor includes 鈥減atient safer rooms鈥� for patients who 鈥渃ome in with special needs, and that means the room needs to be altered in a little bit of a way to keep them safe throughout their stay with us.”
Those rooms have covered TVs, different sinks and features in the bathrooms so that 鈥渢hey can still have their own private area to take a shower, but if they were feeling unsafe, they would still be considered safe in that space.鈥�
In the pediatrics section, there鈥檚 an activity room with games projected onto the floor and other toys for children to use. The room has 鈥渢hings where the kids can play, if they feel able to, if they can get out of the room, and they can move their bodies and really use some of those,鈥� Defrancesco said.
In the pediatric patient rooms, there are sound machines to help parents put babies to sleep. Those features 鈥渁re there to make it feel more normal, feel like home,鈥� she said.
The new rooms are also larger and have telehealth technology on the walls to enable doctors to visit patients virtually as needed. Each room has 鈥渁 family zone, so we do focus on the family as well as the patient being cared for,鈥� said Andrew May, with Inova鈥檚 design and construction department.
Bathrooms in the rooms are 鈥渙utbound bathrooms,鈥� which May said help provide nurses with more visibility into the patient鈥檚 rooms.
The units have nursing stations with 鈥減ass-through connectivity,鈥� so they can enter and exit from either side.
鈥淲e have collaborative areas, as you’ll see in our nurse stations, and we also have our medicine rooms that are tied to our nurse stations, and those flow a little bit more easily,鈥� May said.
The pediatric overflow beds are particularly helpful, May said, because during respiratory virus season, hospital beds sometimes fill up quickly.
鈥淏ased on their studies with the numbers of patient populations spiking at certain times of the year, we felt that there was a need to have that overflow that does occur now in our current hospital,鈥� May said.
The medical/surgical unit beds have concealed overhead lifts, and the children鈥檚 unit has additional visibility for staff through door windows.
Dr. Steve Narang, president of Inova鈥檚 pediatric service line, called the new unit 鈥渁 commitment to the future.鈥�
The new floor is scheduled to open to patients Jan. 22.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
