Photo by Michelle Dillon Akron Children’s Division Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Laura Pollauf, from left, Memorial Health Systems Director of Emergency & Urgent Care Services Brian Scharfenberg, and Memorial Health Systems Marketing Director Alexis Fazio show off the new Memorial Health System’s and Akron Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department.

BELPRE — Memorial Health System in partnership with Akron Children’s Hospital opened a new Pediatric Emergency Department Tuesday at its Belpre campus.

The emergency department has eight beds, a nurse’s desk, a triage room and a physician work station. It will be open 2 p.m. to midnight seven days a week. T

hese times were chosen because those are the hours they have seen with the highest number of pediatric patients, according to Akron Children’s Division Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Laura Pollauf.

Pollauf said there will be an Akron Children’s pediatric emergency medicine fellowship trained physician, two Memorial Health System nurses, a respiratory therapist and a medical assistant working at the Pediatric Emergency Department each shift.

If a patient comes into the Belpre Emergency Department and they are under 18 they will be sent to the Pediatric Emergency Department and registered there to receive care, Memorial Health Systems Director of Emergency & Urgent Care Services Brian Scharfenberg said.

The waiting room of Memorial Health Systems and Akron Children’s new Pediatric Emergency Department in Belpre.

Memorial Health Systems Belpre Emergency Department sees 6,000 pediatric patients a year. They hope to serve that many patients in the new Pediatric Emergency Department, according to Scharfenberg.

“The intention here is just to create an emergency department that’s really tailored very specifically to pediatric patients, to children. So lots of fun colors and pictures and imagery,” he said.

Scharfenberg gave credit to Akron Children’s for making the Pediatric Emergency Department possible.

“It’s been Akron Children’s partnership that’s made all of this possible, so we’re grateful for them and their expertise in kind of elevating the care that we’re able to provide kids around here. Obviously we can’t do it without them,” he said.

The Pediatric Emergency Department is important because pediatric illnesses vary depending on the age and development of the child. There is a different approach when it comes to pediatric illnesses, Akron Children’s Pediatric Emergency Medical Director Brett Luxmore explained.

Memorial Health System and Akron Children’s opened a new Pediatric Emergency Department in Belpre on Tuesday. Photo by Michelle Dillon

Memorial Health System President & CEO Scott Cantley said that most health care in the community starts in the ER. He called the Pediatric Emergency Department a strong starting point for all the other care that Memorial Health Systems can bring to the area.

“The first thing we wanted to do is bring that emergent, that crisis, care. A thing we’ve never had for children here in this region, a true pediatric ER, will be an absolute starting point and building block for everything else that comes later,” Cantley said. “This region has wanted something like this for years and years and years, this access to pediatric subspeciality care. It’s just growing. It’s a noticeable absence”.

They had to work first to get all the pieces together to bring a Pediatric Emergency Department to the area. When Akron Children’s came to the table and said they’d help build it, Cantley knew it was the right time.

“For the first time ever rural Appalachia has access to pediatric subspecialty care,” he said.

The Pediatric Emergency Department is not the only thing Memorial Health Systems and Akron Children’s has planned for the Belpre Campus. They announced in July 2023 they are building a Women and Children’s hospital at the location.

Memorial Health Foundation Teddy Bear Fund teddy bears will be available for patients at the new Memorial Health System and Akron Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department in Belpre.

“We are very hopeful that you know some time in ’25,” Cantley said about when the new hospital will be ready to open. “So we’re a little over a year out from that, but we have to, you know, prepare the ground, and build a hospital,and build all that infrastructure. But I’m looking forward to what I believe to be a 2025 possibility that we could see the opening of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. I believe you will see significant progress beginning in the next couple months. We think in about March we will probably have some of the demolition done and it will permit us to begin the foundational work of that building.”

Belpre Mayor Susan Abdella, who took office Monday, said having this kind of service locally serves the needs of families throughout the entire Mid-Ohio Valley.

“It is fabulous and it is wonderful,” she said. “This is something this area has needed for a long time.”

If a child gets sick they sometimes have to be sent two hours away to somewhere who can serve young patients and parents can have trouble getting there to be with their children, Abdella said.

“Having that emergency department locally is amazing for the citizens of the Valley,” Abdella said. “To have that expertise and that partnership with Akron Children’s (Hospital) is wonderful because you have pediatricians that are specialized in taking care of tiny people, because it is not always the same as taking care of (adults).”

Memorial Health Systems Marketing Director Alexis Fazio (back row from left), Akron Children’s Pediatric Emergency Medical Director Brett Luxmore, Memorial Health System Clinical Nurse Manager Brittany Cunningham, Memorial Health Systems Director of Emergency & Urgent Care Services Brian Scharfenberg, Akron Children’s Division Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Laura Pollauf, and Memorial Health System Vice President of Physician Services & Chief Medical Officer Dan Breece; and (front from left) pediatric nurse Tori Duskey and pediatric ER tech Lauren Hall pose in the new Pediatric Emergency Department.

Abdella is looking forward to the building of the hospital and the care it is going to bring to the children in this area.

The first patient for the Pediatric Emergency Room on Tuesday was Elena Strauss of Beverly. The young toddler was at a pediatrician appointment within the Belpre Memorial Campus when she got her fingers caught in an elevator door. Her parents, Samantha and Levi, brought her to the new pediatric emergency department where she was examined as their first patient.

“There were no broken bones,” Samantha said. “Everything was fine.”

Samantha was glad that there was something like this geared for children in the area.

“I like it,” she said. “You feel like your kids are getting the care they need.”

Levi was also pleased with the care Elena received.

“It is definitely handy to have something geared towards kids,” he said. “That way you get more specialized focus.”

In getting treatment at an emergency department that is usually geared towards adults, a lot of time can be spent with the personnel consulting with others who specialize in pediatrics to make sure everything gets covered, the parents said.

“They try, but they don’t always have the information you need for your child,” Samantha said. “It can end up taking longer.

“It was a lot quicker than it would have been at a regular ER. You feel you are being taken care of better when you have someone trained in pediatrics.”

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com