Fukuyama Medical Center provides regional medical care throughout eastern Hiroshima and western Okayama, covering a population of approximately one million, including about 8000 births annually. We are moving towards becoming a core hospital for advanced pediatric care and a general perinatal maternal and child medical center, and our final goal is establishing a Maternal and Child Medical Care Center.
Our Pediatric Medical Center (Center Manager, Dr. Toru Araki), Neonatal Center (Center Manager, Dr. Nobumasa Takahashi; Assistant Manager, Dr. Ikuko Nojima) will increase NICU hospital beds from 12 to 15 beds (accommodating a maximum of 17 patients) and GCU hospital beds from 12 to 18 beds. Our Child Center (Center Manager, Dr. Seika Kuroda; Assistant Manager, Michimasa Fujiwara) will establish 3 new beds for PICU, which accommodate children with respiratory and circulatory disorders or encephalopathy, as well as child patients recovering from difficult surgery. In addition, general ward hospital beds will be increased from 24 to 38 beds, which are separately operated by our infectious disease team or our non-infectious disease team, which handles cases such as allergies, circulatory diseases or diseases requiring surgery.
Last year, our Neonatal Center accepted 244 newborns for hospitalization in NICU and 350 newborns for hospitalization in GCU. Among them, there were 31 newborns with body weight less than 1500 g, and 3 newborns weighing less than 1000 g. We dealt with 94 cases of respiratory control, 6 special treatments such as therapeutic hypothermia and nitrogen monoxide inhalation therapy, and 12 surgery cases. Through these medical practices, we have constantly retained the qualification of “Neonatal Care Additional Point 1”. Bed occupancy rates are 90.8% in NICU and 67.5% in GCU. On occasion, it is necessary to transport patients to hospitals in other prefectures due to full occupancy of our hospital beds.
In the past, we used to account for about 30% of this region’s child secondary medical emergency medical care. We now account for 60%, largely due to the support of the Okayama University Research and Study Organization for Child Acute Disease which commenced in 2013. We will closely cooperate with Fukuyama City Hospital to effectively handle child acute disease.
The number of the surgical operation for patients of 15 years old or younger has increased 1.7 times compared to 5 years ago. In particular, pediatric surgery and otolaryngological surgery have increased due to the reopening the otolaryngology department, taking over pediatric surgical patients from JA Onomichi General Hospital, and engaging a pediatric urologist, Dr. Shimada, as a medical adviser. For the Neonatal center, we can forecast 500 to 600 surgical operations for patients of 15 years old or younger for the upcoming year. By performing these operations, we acquire medical service points for pediatric, anesthetic and surgical treatments, which will be converted to hospital fee income. Our daily acquired points per day are about double our hospital’s average, so in this regard, we also contribute to the hospital’s business operation.
We plan to recruit pediatricians nationally, focused on Okayama University. Our next recruitment priorities are obstetrician-gynecologists and anesthesiologists. We also plan to foster the development of nurses specialized in neonatal and pediatric emergency treatment.
Fukuyama Medical Center has many female doctors in our Pediatrics Department and Obstetrics-Gynecology Department, so, as part of our female doctor support program, we will establish a daycare center for sick children, as well as an in-hospital childcare center in the pediatric ward.
To enhance perinatal care, it is essential to ensure logistical support. So we will cooperate with home care support services and severely multiple handicapped childcare centers, also establish a respite care room in our hospital.
We highly value amicable relationships with medical offices of universities in this region, base hospitals in Fukuyama City, Medical Associations, nearby private clinicians, administrative agencies and public health centers. Fukuyama Medical Center continues to perform an important central role to best apply the specialities of these organizations to pediatric medical care, contributing to provision of a regionally-complete medical practice.
Assistant Manager
Dr. Toshimichi Hasegawa