The Third Floor

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The third floor of the hospital joins the PICU and Surgery Suites with comfortable family areas.

When it reaches the third floor the main visitors elevator at the front of the hospital opens to the family lounge for the pediatric intensive care unit. The area has comfortable seating for small groups. Other family comforts for this critical care unit include a kitchenette equipped with a microwave oven, coffee maker and refrigerator; and two sleep rooms each have two bunk beds each and an adjoining bathroom. Each ICU room also will have a new sleep chair, most of which were donated by families of Children’s Hospital of Georgia patients. The new PICU will have 16 beds, including 14 individual rooms and two rooms large enough to house two patients each or one patient who requires a lot of equipment. Patient rooms are arranged in an elongated U-shape with a centrally located nursing unit.

On the main Harper Street corridor are the surgery and outpatient procedure units. The large family sitting area on the right of the corridor can be seen from Harper Street as the big, blue protruding square on the side of the building. On the left side of the corridor across from the sitting room is the receptionists desk. The Children’s Hospital of Georgia has 10 pre-operative rooms, nine phase I recovery bays and one phase I recovery isolation room. The 10 pre-operative rooms can do double duty for phase II recovery of patients. Patients are awakened in phase I, then moved to phase II. Parents are welcome in both places and can go to the operating room for anesthesia induction.

The surgical suite has six general operating rooms as well as an orthopaedic/neurosurgery room and a cardiothoracic surgery room. The operating suite has its own pharmacy, blood gas lab and pathology lab. To the rear of the operating suite are three trauma elevators for transporting patients directly from the helideck on top of the CMC to any floor. Also to the rear of the Children’s Hospital of Georgia are two special-procedure rooms.

Patients, visitors and Children’s Hospital of Georgia staff can walk from the main Harper Street corridor of the inpatient facility to the third floor of the Medical Office Building, which houses most of outpatient services for children. Also on that corridor is the elevator serving only the second and third floors, making it convenient for children and teens having same-day surgery to pre-register on the second floor of the Children’s Hospital of Georgia and then come immediately to the third floor for the procedure.