Care for all families: Northern Arizona Healthcare expanding Children’s Health Clinic – Arizona Daily Sun

“The goal when looking for a new space was to find a location that would better accommodate new programs, allow easier parking and access from the freeway and create a place where children and young adults feel comfortable and safe,” Jon Cook, director of rehabilitation services at NAH, said. “Families will have greater access to expert pediatric care close to home. More space equals more opportunity to offer new and improved programs to the already diverse medical services we have.”

The wide range of services offered by pediatric specialists—with expertise in neurology, orthopedics, cardiology, neurosurgery, developmental behavior, gastrointestinal, urology, endocrinology, ENT, plastic surgery and pediatrics—at the NAH CHC includes custom orthotics made on-site, neurogenic bowel management, social work, an audiology and cochlear implant program, speech and occupational therapy, follow-up care for high risk newborns up to 3 years old and more.

Diana Holt, PNP, graduated from the University of Arizona in 1988 and worked as a pediatric nurse in San Diego before studying at the University of Washington to earn her master’s degree and nurse practitioner license. She specializes in special needs pediatrics with NAH, where she has worked since 1993.

MLM: What drew you to pediatric nursing as opposed to working with adult patients?

Holt: Children are fun. They’re spontaneous, they’re honest, they’re resilient. They bounce back quickly, but paired with that, they’re also vulnerable and I think people in pediatrics have to really pay attention to taking care of the whole family. As far as parents are concerned, relating well to parents is part of my job. Holding that trust that the parents put in you is a big responsibility and I take it seriously. But kids are fun. And when they’re hurting, you have to be more of a detective when you work in pediatrics, especially with kids that have disabilities. If they’re nonverbal, then you have to look at other signs and use your clinical skills to find out what’s happening. So it’s really challenging also, and that’s what I love about it.

How did you decide to build your career in Flagstaff?

Flagstaff just drew me here. It’s a cool town to live in, a lot of outdoor recreational activities, great climate and great organization to work for. I’ve been treated very well here. I’ve worked for other places in Arizona, but working at Northern Arizona Healthcare has really afforded me a lot of opportunity to grow as a nurse practitioner and I feel supported in making a difference in this community. I’m raising my [16-year-old] daughter here and my husband is a Wildland firefighter, and it just kind of fits for all of us.

When the new Children’s Health Center opens, how will it change the landscape of care you and the other physicians currently provide?  

The new facility is going to offer us a lot more space to do the job and to grow as an outpatient pediatric clinic. We have more rooms to see patients for medical clinics, which allows for people to spread out more and cuts back on waiting time. We have more therapy rooms for physical, occupational and speech therapy, so we can build more of our therapy programs.

We have four large play gyms designed with special adaptive equipment to help children play through their therapies. It’s nice to have lots of toys and things they can hang on and climb on to do their therapy because they don’t really get on the treadmill and lift weights like adults do; we have to be really creative. In physical therapy a child may propel themselves laying on a longboard to build upper body strength.  We might see them riding a tricycle down the hallway as part of their therapy, or going down a slide to improve core strength and balance.

I think all of our staff here loves to work with children because you can incorporate play and see children really get engaged. It’s fun—not that it’s not difficult work. Children often don’t understand why they might need a big surgery or have to take their medications or do therapy every week. It’s hard to see them not being able to do activities or have the skills as their same-aged peers. Sometimes they act out and get angry or feel sad. It our job to be understanding and support them and their parents to get through it together. That’s a thing in pediatrics you have to do a lot of, is get creative and be in the moment and adapt—and be positive. And children are usually very hopeful people with a lot of enthusiasm so it makes it easy to want to share that with them.

One other thing about the new space is that, because we’re going to be offsite and we’re not going to be on [Flagstaff Medical Center’s] campus anymore, our billing structure is going to change. Visits will be more affordable and that’s definitely an improvement for access to care. We serve children from all over northern Arizona, Coconino, Navajo, Apache and Mojave [Counties]. Many of these those children come to Flagstaff for their special health care needs. Even though they might be 30 minutes from Las Vegas, they still have to see healthcare providers in Arizona because, if they’re on Access [Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System], it’s an Arizona health plan, so they have to see providers in the state. We have a lot of patients that travel a great distance.

In regard to COVID-19, what can you tell parents to help relieve any concerns they may have?

All parents are worried about COVID, and kids are worried about COVID too. I try to emphasize common sense.. First, always encourage parents to keep up on their child’s vaccinations. Nationally we have seen a drop in immunization rates over the summer because patients were missing well-child checkups, so they’re getting behind on their primary vaccines. That’s critically important to stay on top of. The flu vaccine is critically important and that’s coming up in the fall.

As far as protecting against COVID specifically, it’s about following the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines which we’ve all done here the hospital. We’re practicing good hygiene through good hand washing/sanitizing facial masking and eye protection for everyone’s safety. Social distancing, or really physical distancing, of six feet or more is recommended. The closer you are, and the longer you spend time (greater than 5 minutes) at that close interval of distance, the more likely you are to contract the virus if the virus is present. So time and distance are important factors in preventing spread.  

Finally, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is always good for disease prevention, getting enough sleep, managing your stress, eating a healthy diet and outdoor play. Those are all important things in keeping yourself healthy.

[line break]

Learn more about the Children’s Health Center at www.nahealth.com/childrens-health-center.