CityView Magazine

Right | Dr. David Smith is medical director of the children’s ED and a pediatric emergency medicine physician. Below | Last year, the department saw more than 39,000 children. Cape Fear Valley West By the numbers The children’s emergency department isn’t the only thing growing at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. The hospital submitted a certificate of need to the state to build a 41-bed hospital on U.S. 401 in Hoke County. It will include: • 16-bed emergency department • 4 ICU beds • 4 birthing suites • 2 operating rooms plus C-section room and imaging services First Health of Moore County recently received state permission to build an 8-bed hospital in Hoke County and plans to build an outpatient surgery center there as well. 44 | June/July • 2010 undisturbed away from the hustle and bustle in the main ED. A hospital visit can be a scary experience for little ones, but the new children’s ED was created with the child in mind. The bright and friendly jungle theme seems to minimize a lot of the fear. No ferocious jungle beasts here – they are all cuddly and smiling. On the floor, colorful animal tracks – ducks’ webbed feet, bear paw prints and deer hoof prints – mark the way. Cheery nurses in playful print scrubs greet families at the registration desk and direct them to the waiting area or one of the treatment rooms, each sealed off with glass doors, looking like something out of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Here, the jungle theme continues with jungle- print privacy curtains and paw prints embedded in the ceiling tiles. A few rooms are sports-themed, geared toward older children or teens. (The children’s ED sees patients up to age 17.) Each room has a soothing mural on the wall, reminiscent of a Thomas Kinkade painting, perhaps to soothe the nerves of harried parents. Of course, no room would be truly child- friendly without a flat-screen television showing the Cartoon Network, Nick, Nick, Jr., and other popular kid channels. On this particular Wednesday, the

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