Maryville Academy-Maryville Children's Healthcare Center

Providing 24-hour skilled nursing care for medically fragile children

Maryville's Children's Healthcare Center offers a step-down, transitional program providing clinical care between hospital and home for medically fragile children, ages newborn through 21. The Center is a "home away from home" for medically fragile children and their families.

The Center provides care to medically fragile children who may be technology-dependent (e.g., ventilators, apnea monitoring) and training for parents, caregivers, and siblings to help them become more confident when attending to the fragile child's specialized needs. The Center also offers respite care for caregivers, giving them much needed breaks from demanding schedules.

The Healthcare Center has 12 beds in child-friendly and welcoming rooms. There are separate rooms for physical therapy, learning, eating and play. The Center's nursing ratio is 3 to 1 for most cases with 32% requiring 1 to 1 ratios for all ventilator patients. Dr. Carl Toren, the Center's Medical Director, reviews all protocols and supplements the care provided by the child's own doctors. Dr. Toren is a board certified Pediatrician affiliated with five Chicago area hospitals.

"Medically fragile" applies to many diagnoses, such as:
• neuro-muscular disease, heart disease, cancer, seizure disorder, spina bifida, chronic lung disease, or other medical conditions that threaten the child's ability to thrive and to survive without proper medical care;
• a condition that is life threatening, an acute chronic infectious disease or a terminal illness; or
• a transplant recipient requiring special health care support, such as tube feeding, suctioning, tracheotomy care, or a respirator.

In addition to a special diagnosis, the medically fragile child may have:
• limited mobility and require special health care support due to paralysis or chronic disease; and/or
• developmental, behavioral, and emotional conditions in addition to significant physical problems.

Since opening, the Maryville Children's Healthcare Center has welcomed children from:
• Children’s Memorial Hospital
• Loyola University Medical Center
• Advocate Lutheran General
• LaRabida Children's Hospital
• Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
• Shriners Hospital for Children
• Adventist Bolingbrook Medical Center
• Northshore University HealthSystem – Evanston Hospital
• Rush University Medical Center

The Maryville Children's Healthcare Center is licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health and monitored by the Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC). The program opened in 2008 to serve the needs of medically fragile children in the Chicago metropolitan area and is the only such facility in Chicago, one of only two in the state of Illinois.

Funding for those who need to use the services of the Maryville Children's Healthcare Center may be provided by DSCC, Medicaid, private insurers and other private funding sources.

Contact Information:
Mary Argol, RN, MS
Director of Nursing
773-205-3601

Maryville Children's Healthcare Center
4015 N Oak Park Avenue
Chicago, IL 60634
Phone (773) 205-3606
Fax (773) 205-3630

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