Expert Pediatric Care Right in Your Home
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital is leading the way to healthy children not only within our healthcare system, but also in patients’ homes.
“Just like you’d take your child to a children’s hospital, pediatric home health is equally as important. Unlike adult home health, we can modify based on a child’s development and growth to provide the best possible care,” said Sally Mcquilkin, Director of Home Health at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
Our team includes nurses, pharmacists and respiratory, physical, speech and occupational therapists, just to name a few. This range of specialties allows the hospital to provide expert care for every child, no matter what their needs are. For children like Kamerie Littlejohn (right and below), home health has been pivotal to her health and well-being.
Kamerie weighed only one pound and seven ounces at birth. As an extremely small infant born early at 28 gestational weeks, she battled pneumonia, underwent blood transfusions and breathed with the support of a ventilator. After spending 384 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Kamerie was finally able to go home. However, it would require a strong home health team to help her to continue to thrive.
“Home health has played a huge part in Kamerie's care and rehabilitation services. They supply her with all the necessary medical supplies that we use daily for all her respiratory needs. In the very beginning, Kamerie was still 100% ventilator dependent, which meant she was on life support and without all the proper equipment and supplies, Kamerie would not be alive today. She also uses rehabilitation services, such as PT, OT, speech and feeding. They were phenomenal with Kamerie and have helped her get to where she is today as far as cruising along surfaces, playing with toys and eating by mouth,” said Anitra Littlejohn, Kamerie’s mom.
Children’s Hospital understands the importance of accessible care for all and with patients visiting from across the region, providing home health is more important than ever before.
Whether a child has recently returned home from the NICU and is at high risk of getting sick or has a condition that makes traveling to the hospital difficult, Children’s Hospital is here for your family.
As the only pediatric-specific home health provider in the area, our team of 45 healthcare professionals are experts in providing state-of-the-art care for children and their specific needs. Each year, Children’s Hospital home health sees over 1,000 patients and serves 16 counties.
East Tennessee Children's Hospital exists to improve the health of children through comprehensive, family-centered care, wellness and education. Our premier healthcare system provides a network of care for children in our region and beyond to treat any illness, from colds to cancer. East Tennessee Children’s Hospital is taking care of our future, one child at a time.
