WakeMed currently serves more than 143,000 children a year, making it one of the most popular hospitals for children in North Carolina. Here’s an overview of the children we serve:
- Premature and Critically Ill Babies: The smallest and most fragile children receive the best available care in our Level IV Intensive Care Nursery, the most experienced and technologically advanced in Wake County.
- Children with Common Medical Issues: Thankfully, most of the children who come to WakeMed are treated for common medical issues such as respiratory or gastrointestinal problems, the management of diabetes or asthma, or those requiring surgery such as tonsillectomies, ear tubes or appendectomies. Many of these children do not require overnight hospital stays.
- Accident Victims: The Children’s Emergency Department, supported by Wake County’s only Trauma Center, is equipped to handle patients who have been injured in an accident and require emergency care.
- Critically Ill Children: Children suffering from life-threatening childhood diseases or illnesses are often treated by specialists in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, which is staffed 24/7 by Pediatric Intensivists who are specialists in intensive care medicine for children.
For decades, parents and pediatricians have trusted WakeMed to care for our children, making WakeMed one of the most popular hospitals for children in North Carolina.
Today, the majority of community based pediatricians trust WakeMed for the care of their patients. That trust is built on a wide foundation of services that we offer children, all of which are part of the new Children’s Hospital:
- Children’s Emergency Department: Our dedicated Children’s Emergency Department – designed just for kids – opened in 1997 and was the first of its kind in North Carolina. It is completely separate from the adult Emergency Department and features a team of doctors and nurses who are specially trained in both emergency medicine and pediatrics. Everything from the playful decorations to the child-size instruments and equipment is designed to help children feel more relaxed.
- Pediatric Inpatient Unit: Children who have to spend the night in the hospital stay in our Pediatric Unit, separated from other hospital patients in a specially-designed area for children. This is the only inpatient Pediatric Unit in Wake County.
- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: The most seriously ill children are treated in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit by doctors who specialize in caring for critically ill children.
- Level IV Intensive Care Nursery: This Level IV Intensive Care Nursery, one of the most advanced in North Carolina, cares for the most fragile and critically ill newborns. As one of only seven Harvard-certified training sites for development specialists in the country, we employ full-time neonatologists and a full-time perinatologist.
- Children’s Diabetes Endocrinology Center: A staff of certified diabetes educators, registered nurses, registered dieticians, and a board-certified endocrinologist provides comprehensive care for children with diabetes and endocrine problems, including the diagnosis, treatment and management of diabetes, growth disorders, thyroid abnormalities, delayed or early puberty, pituitary disorders, adrenal disorders, disorders of calcium metabolism, hypoglycemia and other endocrine conditions.
- Children’s Asthma Program: Provided at no charge to children 3 to 17 years old and their families, this program helps children and their families better manage asthma by educating them about how to control and prevent asthma attacks.
Explore the new Children’s Hospital.
Get involved in the effort to support the new WakeMed Children’s Hospital.
Learn more about the care and services of WakeMed Children’s at kids.wakemed.org.
