An expansive, new pediatrics center inside Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States Capitol Hill Medical Center opened Monday, July 10.
Envisioned by Kaiser Permanente as a Pediatric Specialty Center, the 23,387 square-foot center will co-locate primary and specialty care programs on the 8th floor to optimize quality and coordination of care across the pediatric continuum. It will also add a new play room, patient and family education rooms, and an interactive audiovisual wall for children, among other features. In planning for the new pediatric center to fit in with the calming water theme already used throughout the Capitol Hill Medical Center, the design team used the ocean for inspiration in selecting finishes. The overall design is age-adaptive, and uses bright colors to engage children while ensuring teenagers feel equally as welcome.
“This is a child-friendly location for families to get superior access and superbly integrated care that is unique to Permanente pediatrics,” said Richard McCarthy, MD, former PIC for the District of Columbia and Suburban Maryland. “This addition will provide our patients with outstanding service.”
General Pediatrics will be located on the 8th floor along with six other subspecialties. Those Pediatric Subspecialties are: Cardiology, Oncology, Gastrointestinal, Neurology, Endocrinology, and Urology departments.
The new pediatrics specialty center is the first phase of an expansion at Capitol Hill. A later phase of the project to “restack” medical offices and facilities on the 6th and 7th floors is expected to be completed by early next year. Dr. McCarthy also added that Pediatric Endocrinology and Pediatric Neurology will be relocated from Kensington Medical Center in Maryland to Capitol Hill as part of the co-location effort.
In addition to improved patient care delivery, there are several other key benefits to opening the new pediatrics center. First, it relieves major space constraints at Capitol Hill and allows the medical center to see more patients in the future. Kaiser Permanente expects the number of primary care patients at Capitol Hill to grow at 5 percent a year (over 50,000 by 2020), while the medical center also sees a large number of specialty patients from across the metro area. The expansion will also allow the internalization of some minor outpatient surgeries and pediatric urology procedures (our hospitalists will continue to care for our pediatric patients requiring inpatient procedures at Children’s National Medical Center).
DCSM Pediatrics Chief Joseph Vander Walde, MD expressed his enthusiasm for the new facility which would allow greater collaboration, integration of resources, and a child-focused facility. “It is so important to have a place where kids can come and say, ‘This is where we belong’,” Dr. Vander Walde said.
Capitol Hill Medical Center opened in 2011, the first of our multispecialty “hub” medical centers that service both primary care and 24/7 urgent care and complex care needs. As a flagship medical center, it plays a critical role in defining Kaiser Permanente care delivery for many residents and commuters in Washington, D.C.
