UPMC expands pediatric care in Cranberry Township
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, local hospitals focused on enhancing services, particularly in pediatric care.
For UPMC, this led to a significant expansion of pediatric emergency care services at its Cranberry Township location. The move is set to change the way children receive medical attention at a facility primarily designed to accommodate adults in its emergency department.
Under the leadership of Elizabeth Piccione, UPMC addressed a long-standing request from the community to improve pediatric services. “It’s always been a request,” Piccione said. “During COVID and immediately post-pandemic, we weren’t resourced to do it.”
She addressed those plans and how they’ve benefited the hospital and the community during UPMC Passavant’s annual public meeting Thursday, Dec. 5, at UPMC Passavant-McCandless.
In 2022, Piccione said Passavant had the resources to focus on meeting the requests for better access to pediatric care at its Cranberry Township and McCandless locations. Of the two facilities, Cranberry had the highest number of children visiting its emergency room, according to data provided by UPMC. Just this year alone, 2,500 of the 20,000 patients seen in the emergency department in Cranberry were children. They account for roughly 12% of total patients seen at that location.
Thanks to improvements started in 2022, Piccione said the facility is better equipped to handle those cases. “There is now embedded within our adult emergency services department UPMC Children’s emergency care access.”
Children who come for emergency care rarely are admitted into hospitals, she said. “What they need is that high level of triage to help determine where a child lands on the spectrum. Do they need to be at an in-patient site like Children’s, or can they safely be treated as an outpatient?”
UPMC Passavant-Cranberry now uses a dedicated telemedicine system that grants immediate access to consult with physicians at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville on various cases in the emergency department.
For those requiring in-patient care, the hospital provides direct transport to the appropriate facility. For outpatients, the hospital provides what Piccione called a “warm handoff” with the help of UPMC’s concierge services, connecting families with the necessary resources so they do not fall through the cracks.
The reason Passavant sees more pediatric patients at its Cranberry location versus its McCandless facility comes down to ease of access, Piccione said. “It’s just easier to get there,” she said, noting its proximity to Interstate 79, Route 228 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. “I think of Passavant not as looking south, but of looking north. We have a huge population that does not have easy access to pediatrics. And that was sort of our thought was that embedding that in Cranberry gives much more access because of the location.”
Besides a greater focus on serving pediatric patients in its emergency department, UPMC Passavant is investing $6.6 million in renovations for the main lobby at the Cranberry facility. The makeover will add 8,300 square feet to the main lobby, which includes a 24-hour self-serve market for hospital visitors.
Another expansion of service includes an after-hours walk-in orthopedic injury clinic, launched Aug. 12 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, which provides a local option for evaluating and treating non-life-threatening injuries. Piccione called it one more way UPMC Passavant is responding to the needs of the communities it serves.
