Joey Wahler (Host): Since opening this year, the Children's Tower is Richmond's new home for pediatric inpatient, emergency and level one trauma care. So we're discussing how the Children's Tower is improving care for kids in Richmond and beyond. Our guest, Dr. Matt Schefft, is a Pediatric Hospital Medicine Physician, also Physician Liaison for the Children's Tower and Associate Chief Quality and Safety Officer for Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

 Welcome to This is Healthy with VCU Health. Thanks for listening. I'm Joey Wahler. Hi, Dr. Schefft. Thanks for joining us.

Matt Schefft, DO: Good to be here with you, Joey.

Host: Thanks for hopping aboard. So, first, when did the Children's Tower actually open and where exactly is it located?

Matt Schefft, DO: Sure. So we opened on April 30th of this year. We are located at 1000 East Broad Street. It is connected to our Children's Pavilion, our outpatient space, making about a million square feet of space for children in our region. We're conveniently located right off I-95, just a couple of blocks from the highway with parking right underneath the building. Couldn't be more convenient.

Host: And a million square feet, that's quite a facility.

Matt Schefft, DO: That's right. Whether you're here for asthma, a broken bone, or something much more complex and serious, like trauma or cancer, whatever you need; we've got it in our building.

Host: Well, we'll talk about some of those specifics in a moment. First, let me ask you about the fact that the tower was a long time coming. What was the planning and building process like?

Matt Schefft, DO: Sure. So it was about a five year process. Really started with engaging our team members into their needs for a new space. Our families and our patients were essential partners as well. We had design fairs where children got to vote on colors. We asked families what they wanted in a facility. And really designed it with all those folks in mind.

Host: That's great. So, kids were actually involved in the planning process. What were some of the colors they chose?

Matt Schefft, DO: Well, unlike us adults who tend to choose the more boring muted colors, they wanted blues, they wanted purples, they wanted pinks, they wanted green, and they got all of it.

Host: Sounds like the list of my choices when we bought our house when my wife said, no way. We're going to go beige, gray.

Matt Schefft, DO: That's right, right.

Host: Light beige, light gray.

Matt Schefft, DO: Well, what's soothing for kids is not the same as what's soothing for grown ups, for adults. And so that's part of the process and part of, you know, what makes this building so special.

Host: Sure. And so you also mentioned that you asked people what they wanted in such a place. What were a couple of the things they suggested that you followed through on?

Matt Schefft, DO: Well, I'll give you an example with a great story. We had a family member who asked us if we were going to decorate the stairwells that go up and down our tower - 16 flights. And, we asked, well, why do you care about what the stairwells look like? You should be taking the elevators up and down. And her answer was, well, when my child's in the hospital, which happens frequently, the only way I can exercise is going up and down those stairs.

And the stairs in our old facility, were pretty dark and drab. And we thought, you know what? We can do one better than that. And we made a family gym on the top floor of our building. So parents, caregivers who are in the hospital with their child, have access to a treadmill, to a stationary bike, to some free weights and some other equipment so that they can take care of themselves while they're in the hospital, taking care of their children.

Host: That's awesome. So this woman said, I just want a chance to climb the stairs for some exercise. And you did her a few better and said, we'll give you a whole gym.

Matt Schefft, DO: That's right.

Host: That's great. So you're a dad yourself. Meaning, you know first-hand, aside from being a doctor, of course, how important it is for families to have convenient access to the best care for their kids. So simply put, and again, we'll talk about some particulars in a moment, but overall, just to kind of lead us into this, why would you say the Children's Tower is the right place for the kind of care that it offers. In a nutshell, how would you kind of sum that up?

Matt Schefft, DO: I think it's all about the vibe. It's all about the experience you have. You know, we talked about the color. We'll get into some details, but the art, the design, the light, everything is pediatric focused. And nothing is meant to be scary, or cause children to feel anxiety or fear. It's all focused on their wellbeing.

Host: Because obviously the anxiety and fear is going to be built in oftentimes due to whatever condition brings them there. So you want to make sure that the aesthetics are just the opposite.

Matt Schefft, DO: That's exactly right. We understand that what is routine for us every day is once in a lifetime for a lot of the families who come and their children have to be admitted to our hospital. And so it may be the most anxiety they experience in a month, in a year, in their lifetimes. And so we want to be respectful of that and minimize it as much as we can.

Host: Absolutely. So you touched on it a moment ago, but give us a list of the main types of care that the tower provides for kids.

Matt Schefft, DO: Sure. So we have over 300 specialists that work in that space. And so, from our physicians who, you know, we are the only level one pediatric trauma center in the region, the only level one pediatric surgery center in the region, where we can do almost any kind of complex surgery you can imagine.

We've even separated twins in the past. We take care of hard things like cancer, but we also do the routine things, right? So if your child has an asthma attack, has a seizure, has pneumonia; we take care of that as well. And that's all supported by a great team of pediatric specialists. So our nurses only take care of children. Our respiratory therapists only take care of children. All the folks that are in the building are dedicated 24/7 to the care of children and understand how to interact with them. And even we have a role called a Child Life Specialist who, they're graduate trained folks who understand the developmental levels of children at different ages, can explain what's happening to them again, to ease that anxiety, like we talked about, and really meet the children where they are.

Host: That's great. So how would you say from, I mean, we've talked about some of the cool things about the look of the place and the feel of it, et, et cetera; from a care standpoint, how would you say most of all, the Children’s Tower's different from other hospitals,

Matt Schefft, DO: Right. So it's the only place in the region that is dedicated to children. And so what that's going to mean in terms of the care is that everybody is a pediatric specialist. It means that when you have an immediate need any time of day, we already know what to do. We don't have to phone a friend outside. We are those friends that other folks phone from outside, so you really are getting world class pediatric care from the moment you arrive, through your journey, until we send you home, hopefully well again.

Host: From your experience dealing with pediatrics, what's the key in effectively treating children, whether it be from a medical standpoint, as you touched on, a psychological standpoint, making them feel comfortable. Overall, what would you say is the biggest key in effectively treating children specifically as opposed to adults?

Matt Schefft, DO: I'm going to give you two answers. The first is understanding that a child is a part of a family. And so in order to give a child the best care possible, we have to recognize the needs of that family. Recognize that we have to educate not just the child, but the family on what to do when they go home, so that they can stay home, and stay home comfortably. That's the biggest one. I think the other one is to recognize that children are incredible. They have an incredible ability to heal themselves. And sometimes our biggest job, we have all the technology in the world, but our biggest job is just to get out of the way and support them in their own healing process.

Host: And speaking of jobs, as Physician Liaison, which we mentioned earlier, what exactly is your role at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU?

Matt Schefft, DO: So in that role, my job was to help the physicians, but also the hospital as a whole to transition from what was one floor of pediatric care in an otherwise adult hospital to 16 stories of freestanding children's hospital in that inpatient tower. So that meant a lot of the things that we do had to be done differently for the better, but it was a culture change for our teams. And so helping them to reorganize, understand how to make sure that if we have a code blue, our ICU used to be right next to our floor, and now it could be multiple levels between us. How do we do that efficiently and safely for our patients?

Host: Couple of other things, we've talked about a number of the unique aspects of this facility. From your standpoint, personally, is there one specific thing about the place, be it from a care standpoint, a facility standpoint, anything at all that you personally find coolest out of all the features that the place has to offer?

Matt Schefft, DO: I'm going to go with the food. Yeah, we, believe it or not, we're a hospital and I'm going to brag about our food, which is pretty unheard of. So we have a pizza oven that came from Italy that makes gas fired pizzas, individual pizzas that you can order, that I can tell you both patients and staff come from all over the facility now to try our food. It is so good. And, and even the food for the children in the hospital, is delicious and has brought a lot of pride to the folks that work in our kitchen, to be able to serve it.

Host: That is tremendous. So pizza at or near the top of the wish list in a hospital, as you said, who would have thought, right?

Matt Schefft, DO: That's right. And I'll have to explain, we do have healthy options as well, but, the pizza is a hit. And the other one that I'll mention is the ice cream machine that we have as well that really distinguishes us as a children's hospital with some of those tastes that kids crave and we want them to have it.

Host: That's terrific. So how rewarding is it for you as one of the leaders of this place to help plan it and see it to its fruition and now be reaping the benefits? It must be very rewarding.

Matt Schefft, DO: Oh, it's been the best job of my life so far, to help in this work, to see this place opened up, and to see the impact that it's had on patients, families, as well as the staff that get to work in this beautiful building every day.

Host: I wanted to end by, in summary here, asking you what you want families listening right now to remember or know most about this place to kind of put a bow on all this, maybe you could do that, Doctor, by giving us one example of an experience that you've had with a particular child or a particular family that you want to pass along?

Matt Schefft, DO: Sure. I'll tell you about a family that moved with us into the new tower. They had been in the hospital for several weeks before and were with us for a couple of weeks after. So a very long stay in the hospital. And what I really remember about the experience, the child loved the room, the private bathroom, the 300 square feet of private space.

But what struck me was that this parent's father, every morning, before the move, was really stuck in that room. And then afterwards, we have this three-story glassed-in garden. And I would find him with his cup of coffee and his book, just looking out the window for about an hour every morning, just gathering himself, preparing himself for the day to be the best dad he could be for his child.

So, in saying that, I hope that story, what it says is that you don't know when you're going to need us and for how long you're going to need us, but with our facility matched with our teams, now you know where to go.

Host: Wow. Well, that certainly sums it up in a great way, to say the very least. And it really sounds like you guys have thought of everything, huh? From pizza to A to Z, right?

Matt Schefft, DO: I hope so. I hope so. But we certainly have a continuous improvement mentality. So we will not be resting on our laurels. We will continue to improve where we can.

Host: I mean, if you're making great pizza and separating twins under the same roof, it sounds like you're doing your job quite well, huh?

Matt Schefft, DO: We're definitely proud of the job we're doing. That's for sure, Joey.

Host: Well, folks, we trust you're now more familiar with the Children's Tower. Dr. Matt Schefft, congratulations on getting it all to this point, continued success, and thanks so much again.

Matt Schefft, DO: Thanks for having me.

Host: And for more information, you can explore the Children's Tower virtually online at chrichmond.org/tower. Again, that's ch as in children, richmond.org forward slash tower. Now, if you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on your social media. I'm Joey Wahler. Thanks again for listening to This is Healthy with VCU Health.