About a year ago, a unique sedation and anesthesia clinic was opened for children and adolescents with special needs at the Baruch Padeh Medical Center (Poriya) just south of Tiberias, in northern Israel. The clinic provides medical services under sedation and anesthesia for children and youth with special needs up to the age of 21.
Using careful planning, all the necessary tests for this population are performed in one visit, under one sedation. These include a wide range of possible tests, including by a pediatrician, ophthalmologist, AAG, blood tests, and auxiliary tests such as ECG, EEG, ultrasound, and echocardiography.
Concentrating all the tests in one visit streamlines the treatment and reduces the number of hospital visits, which is crucial for keeping to a minimum the interruptions of the daily routine of the special needs children and their parents.
Abigail’s parents were at a loss. Their child is a special-needs girl on the autistic spectrum, who has been under cardiological follow-up for several years. Abigail refuses to cooperate during relatively simple medical procedures, such as blood and medical indices tests. Ahead of a complex dental treatment, the parents were asked to provide the results of some needed tests.
When Abigail’s mother, Iris, heard about the possibility of performing the tests in a sedation clinic adapted for children with special needs, she rushed to the Poriya clinic.
“We arrived at the sedation clinic to perform the tests and felt we were getting personal and professional service. The skilled medical staff treated Abigail with the sensitivity of experienced personnel in the manner of treatment required for special children,” she said.
Dr. Amir Bar, Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Sedation Clinic, explained: “The clinic is unique as it enables comprehensive and multidisciplinary testing and treatment, performing all the necessary tests and treatments, in one procedure under one sedation. The approach is ‘personalized medicine’ for every child.”
“Even at the stage of preparing the visit, all the tests and experts must be coordinated next to each other in an exact schedule,” Dr. Bar said. “This is in order to minimize the sedation time. In addition, an effort is made to assist and facilitate the parents in the bureaucratic realm as well, for example in receiving the various referrals and commitments. During the visit, the drugs selected for sedation are in consideration of the number and type of tests required.”
The clinic offers the services of the professional and skilled staff of the pediatric intensive care unit: Dr. Amir Bar, director of the pediatric intensive care unit, Dr. Ahmad Agbaria, a senior physician in the unit, and Galit David, a nurse in charge of pediatric intensive care. The administrative director of the clinic is the director of the patient reception department at the medical center, Ayala Elitzdek.
