Ouchless ER efforts in full swing at KVH

Fundraiser planned

The annual Cattle Baron’s Champagne Brunch during Labor Day weekend this year will support the KVH ouchess ER. The event will be from 8-11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 4, at Rodeo City BBQ at 204 N. Main St. in Ellensburg. Tickets are $30 a person and include music, entertainment, and a buffet full of beef, smoked ham, blueberry french toast, egg dishes, breakfast potatoes, pastries, biscuits and gravy, rolls, fruit, juices and coffee.

The event is sponsored by local businesses, which have all donated $500 a piece, which the Community Foundation of Kittitas County will match up to $5,000. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Old Mill Country Store, Fitterer’s Furniture or at Rodeo City BBQ.

For more information on the event, call Jim Ridgway at 509-899-0477.

Fundraiser planned The annual Cattle Baron’s Champagne Brunch during Labor Day weekend this year will support the KVH ouchess ER. The event will be from 8-11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 4, at Rodeo City BBQ at 204 N. Main St. in Ellensburg. Tickets are $30 a person and include music, entertainment, and a buffet full of beef, smoked ham, blueberry french toast, egg dishes, breakfast potatoes, pastries, biscuits and gravy, rolls, fruit, juices and coffee. The event is sponsored by local businesses, which have all donated $500 a piece, which the Community Foundation of Kittitas County  will match up to $5,000. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Old Mill Country Store, Fitterer’s Furniture or at Rodeo City BBQ. For more information on the event, call Jim Ridgway at 509-899-0477.

A visit to the emergency room can be a traumatic experience. Pairing that with a child’s point of view can result in bad memories that can last a lifetime.

To combat that possibility, KVH ER Nursing Director Dede Utley is leading the charge alongside the Ellensburg Downtown Rotary in transforming part of the KVH Emergency Room into an “ouchless ER.” In other words, a space that’s not quite as threatening as a regular ER could potentially be to a child, filled with distractions and other methods used to make the best out of a bad situation.

The idea was brought forward by KVH CEO Julie Petersen, who had experienced a similar concept at her previous hospital in Prosser. Utley looked up what an ouchless ER concept looked like, and started doing research by visiting and calling hospitals with similar environments in bigger markets, like Seattle Children’s Hospital.

“My goal moving forward is hopefully to make children and adult experiences even better,” Utley said.

Techniques

When it came to designing KVH’s version of the ouchless ER, Utley focused on three areas: Environment, equipment and education.

Utley said the environment plays a large factor in a child’s experience in the emergency room, which can often be filled with scary-looking machines in a sterile, intimidating room. The hospital hired a Ellensburg High School student Lucy Beck to paint the walls in the area around one of the emergency department’s nine beds. Her art teacher at EHS recommended her, and when she got the call she was on board.

“What’s on there is amazing, really embraces the Northwest,” Utley said. The art has animals and an Ellensburg farming scene, and Utley said the plan is to expand the art beyond just one bed, since it can’t be guaranteed the bed will be used for a child all the time.

KVH is also having a local woodworker build a cabinet to encase some of the equipment that might be scary to a young patient. Beck also is designing a coloring book which goes hand-in-hand with the themes from the art on the walls.

Donations are coming in for different things like Matchbox cars and crayons. Utley said when she went to look at the emergency room’s current crayon supply, all she found was black, orange and yellow — not necessarily the most inviting art set. She hopes to have individual packets of crayons kids can take home, similar to what is seen at family restaurants.

On the medical side, equipment like Buzzy pain blockers can be used in conjunction with J-tip syringes to make it much less painful and easier to give children the necessary shots or to put in an IV.

The last major focus is education, which Utley said will be a continuing effort with doctors and nurses across the hospital. Utley said things like traditional pain scales and telling them to sit still for an IV aren’t going to work like they do with adult patients.

“It’s not always going to be perfect, it’s oxymoron if you think about,” Utley said. “But if we take the time to utilize these tips, we’re hoping they get the best experience and they keep their trust in us.”