Anne Grady celebrates first year at helm of Pediatric Center
Written by Brandi Barhite | Special Sections Editor | bbarhite@toledofreepress.com
Rod Standiford is thankful the Prescribed Pediatric Center (PPC) is still open for his son and the many families who depend on it.
It seemed as if the medical day care for children would close when Visiting Nurse Extra Care, a ProMedica Health System company, announced it would no longer provide service after Aug. 31, 2007.
But more than one year later, Anne Grady is celebrating first year as operator of PPC. The organization officially took over in September 2007, picking up right where Visiting Nurse Extra Care left off. Anne Grady took over in partnership with the Lucas County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD).
“There are about 40 kids and 40 families who would have been devastated. They saved the day,” Standiford said, president of the Lucas County Board of MR/DD.
Game on
His 11-year-old son, Michael, has been attending PPC ever since his near drowning on April 27, 1999. He was a normally developing child before then.
“When I got a phone call that there was a problem, I assumed he was doing his typical Michael, standing on the high chair tray and fell off; I had no idea,” Standiford said.
Michael, who was only days away from his second birthday, had fallen into their above-ground pool. His wife, who was in the bathroom helping their daughter, thought he had escaped through the back fence and began looking there first.
That was Tuesday. By Sunday they were going to pull the breathing tube out of his throat, but when they did, he started to breathe on his own.
“It’s been game on ever since,” Standiford said.
But he doesn’t pretend as if his family could do it without PPC. Michael is noncommunicative and either is awake and sleeping, awake and crying or asleep. He is fed through a feeding tube and requires being rolled over every 15 minutes.
Standiford, a Sylvania firefighter, said it would be unfair for Michael and normally developing children for his son to be in a mainstream classroom. Even a special education class in a public school would be too hard for his medically fragile child.
That’s why PPC works so well for Michael, he said. PPC is a medical day-treatment program that provides nursing services and education to infants, preschoolers and school-aged children from birth up to 18 years old.
For older children, PPC partners with Toledo Public Schools (TPS). Michael attends classes in the same building as PPC from 9 a.m. to
3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The other times of the day, or if he is not feeling well, he is with PPC.
Dr. Elizabeth Ruppert is the medical director of PPC, which she helped found in 1993.
“The first way to qualify and the only way you can qualify is based upon the child’s health problem,” said Ruppert of PPC, located in The EDUCare Center of the University of Toledo Medical College at 1932 Birchwood Ave.
“Medicaid is a major payer of services, so many of the children who come here their payment source is Medicaid, but it is the kind of illness that the child has that makes the child special … a chronic illness, serious illness and one that prevents a child from being included into a typically developing childhood program.”
Ruppert said PPC cares for babies born prematurely, that have immature lungs and require continuous oxygen. Some children have heart conditions and intestinal problems.
The other group of children may have cerebral palsy and often have other associated problems. Many have seizures or may have some severe difficulty with nutrition, and many have significant problems with prevention of infection.
Ruppert said some of the children would be eligible for a private nurse to come to their home, but it is difficult to staff part-time and full-time nursing at home because of calling off and the nursing shortage.
“Being isolated at home is not as beneficial to the whole child as coming to the center is where they get their nursing services, developmentally appropriate education and fun and just mixing it up with the other kids, she said.
Standiford said Anne Grady upgraded a lot of the medical policies when it took over and the nursing care has stayed excellent. While getting everyone on the same page can be hard, everyone is working on that, he said.
Ruppert said Anne Grady is a perfect fit for PPC.
“Anne Grady’s sole mission is to serve families who have a child or adult with mental retardation or developmental disabilities,” she said. “It is their reason to be. As a result, we feel like we are home. This is an organization that understands children who come to PPC and they enable us to be more effective. They have been terrific in helping us publicize our special population and the other thing is there is some synergy between our work and a program they have called Annie’s House.”
Overnight care
Annie’s House is short-term, overnight care for young children. Anne Grady also has several licensed community homes in the greater Toledo area, including one next door to the Anne Grady Center on Eber Road.
“There really wasn’t much available for respite,” Standiford said. “You can leave them and everything is good now. We were on vacation in Orlando and Michael got pneumonia, so he goes by an ambulance to a hospital and he is kind out of his own and you are getting information from as many different sources as you can, and it is just how we live sometimes.
“This whole compilation of things just works so well together that it is an extension of our living room,” Standiford said.
“What he means by that is that,” Ruppert said, “is that parents can have nurses and other specialists come into their homes, but for reasons that are important they choose to bring their children here to the Prescribed Pediatric Center or to Annie’s House.”
Amy Smith, PPC registered nurse supervisor, said the goal is to provide the same level of care the parents give at home. If a parent does a G-tube feeding a different way than the nurses, the nurses will listen, she said.
Smith said if Michael is in pain or if he cannot follow through with his goals from his individualized education plan, he can be moved to his comfy couch just down the hall.
Standiford said he feels at ease when Michael is at PPC. On the weekends he can tell Michael misses the structure of his day, which can include therapy, music and learning to respond to his name.
“He responds to his name sometimes. He loves to be held and have his head rubbed,” Standiford said.
When Anne Grady took over PPC in September 2007, it had to bring in its own equipment and supplies, according to Sharon Unkle, director of community support at Anne Grady, which is why funding, was and continues to be, so important. Michael’s care is covered by a medical waiver, but not all the students at PPC are on a medical waiver.
The annual PPC budget is $500,000. While there is no relationship between Anne Grady and the Lucas County Board of Mental Health, PPC is in partnership with the Lucas County Board of MR/DD who provides financial support to PPC.
Without the passage of the Nov. 4 levy, that support could have been questionable, Unkle said.
“I am thankful Anne Grady was able to make it all work out,” Standiford said, “but to make it all work out makes it sound so easy. It was not easy.”
