Pediatrics Transcript
Pediatrics – Diego Mechoso, MD Video
Announcer: Now, here’s our reporter, Lora Windsor, who has more on family-centered care.
Visual: Announcer is a male in a suit. He is at a news desk in front of a blue background with the title “American Health Journal” over a swirling globe.
Reporter Lora Windsor: It can be very scary for anyone who has to be admitted into the hospital, especially for a child, so it’s important to make the child’s family part of the healthcare team.
Visual: In the background behind the reporter are rows of TV monitors playing various medical videos. The largest monitor has the title “Family-Centered Medicine” and includes a clip of a doctor talking with a mother in her child’s pediatric room at the hospital, who is being attended by two nurses.
Reporter (V.O.): We spoke with Dr. Diego Mechoso at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in the San Fernando Valley and asked him to give us more on family-centered care.
V.O. visuals: Dr. Mechoso, wearing a shirt, tie and white coat, being interviewed in a studio; exterior of Valley Presbyterian Hospital; Mechoso walking by camera in the hallway of the Labor & Maternity unit.
Diego Mechoso, M.D.: Family-centered care really is the recognition of the importance of the family in the child’s hospitalization.
Visual: Mechoso continues walking past the camera through the doorway of the Pediatrics unit doorway.
Mechoso: It involves four aspects really that we look at. One, involving trust with the family, respect for the family, open communication, and…
Visual: Close-up of Mechoso in studio, in front of darkened blue wall with foliage. He is introduced with the title “Diego Mechoso, MD – Valley Presbyterian Hospital” in the lower-third.
Mechoso (V.O.): …mutual decision-making. It also is something that we have to breed in terms of a culture in the hospital with a team approach.
V.O. visual: Mechoso in a pediatric rom sitting on edge of bed talking with a small female patient, while two nurses watch from nearby.
Reporter (V.O.): Dr. Mechoso talks more on family-centered care.
V.O. visual: Continuation of Mechoso in a pediatric room sitting on edge of bed talking with a small female patient, while two nurses stand nearby.
Mechoso: This involves every aspect of the hospitalization. So when the family comes to the hospital, they are going to be spending the night there, they are going to be spending days there, they are going to be sharing meals there. It involves the doctors in the way they communicate with the families.
Mechoso (V.O.): It involves nursing, greatly. The nurses here are very involved in rounding together with physicians and recognizing family’s questions and how involved families would like to be in the care of their child. Sometimes you are separated from your parents and this is some of the anxiety provoking moments…
V.O. visual: Mechoso behind nurse’s desk in the pediatric unit speaking with a nurse; Mechoso talking with the mother whose little girl is in the hospital bed being attended by two nurses; close-up of nurse showing little girl a picture book as Mechoso continues talking to mother.
Mechoso: …of hospitalization. We know that kids that spend more time with their support systems, be that their siblings, be that their cousins, be that their parents, have less anxiety, have less pain, get better quickly, and generally perceive things better.
Mechoso (V.O.): We know that families that feel like they’re listened to, that feel like they are actively involved in the care of their child…
V.O. visual: Nurse interacting with happy little girl who is playing with a toy in the hospital’s playroom as her mother looks on, smiling.
Mechoso: …and some examples of that may be the diet, what the child’s able to eat, maybe when we do lab draws, maybe how we do…
Mechoso (V.O.): …the medications, and the more input that the family’s have on that, the better they perceive the hospitalization, and happier that they are, and the more that they feel listened to.
V.O. visuals: Close-up of Mechoso holding stethoscope to little girl’s chest as she sits up on the bed; another angle as Mechoso presses stethoscope to her back.
Reporter (V.O.): Are family-centered care visiting hours the same as other hospitals?
V.O. visual: Continuation of Mechoso holding stethoscope to little girl’s chest.
Mechoso: Our visiting policy here reflects the importance of family in the child’s care and we have, except for cases where safety of the patient or infectious reasons that we may have to limit it, is very broad. So, we invite and welcome the parents to stay twenty-four hours a day. We have sleep chairs and other things to try and make it as comfortable as possible for them.
Mechoso (V.O.): So we have a very broad visiting policy so they can be as involved as possible.
V.O. visual: Mechoso talking with the mother as the two nurses are attending the little girl in the hospital bed.
Mechoso: The family may say to us, ‘no, this works for my child.’ They’re the ones who know their child the best and listening to that helps everybody. It helps the child to have less anxiety and less pain. It helps the parents to…
Mechoso (V.O.): …feel listened to, and it helps us.
V.O. visual: Close-up of Mechoso sitting on edge of bed blowing bubbles with little girl as the nurses watch.
Reporter (V.O.): Dr. Mechoso, how long has family-centered care been around?
V.O. visual: Continuation of Mechoso sitting on edge of bed blowing bubbles with little girl.
Mechoso (V.O.): Family-centered care has been around. The idea of family-centered care…
V.O. visual: Close-up of little girl pointing to bubbles.
Mechoso: …has been around in some form or the other, for since about the nineties. And in pediatrics, really in the early two thousands when the American Academy of Pediatrics has talked about it. So, it is something that is spreading, something that is talked about, and something that we look at as pediatricians. It’s very important…
Mechoso (V.O.): …in all chronic care of kids where you have to look at the kind of care that you’re providing over a long-term period of time requiring multiple different treatments.
V.O. visuals: Mechoso sitting on edge of bed removing his stethoscope from around his neck, while talking to the little girl; Mechoso in hallway talking with nurse.
Mechoso: But it’s really important in every aspect of care of the child and in the hospital, so much more so important, because we have a limited time to create a real rapport with the family.
Visual: Mechoso being interviewed in the studi.
Reporter: The family-centered care approach is expected to improve the quality and safety of a child’s care by helping with communications between families and healthcare providers. For the American Health Journal, I’m Laura Windsor.
Visual: In the background behind the reporter are rows of TV monitors playing various medical videos. The largest monitor includes clips of nurse interacting with happy little girl who is playing with a toy in the hospital’s playroom as her mother looks on, smiling.
