Bethany Children’s Health Center unveils $10 million renovation and top-tier rehab machine

BETHANY (KOKH) — Bethany Children’s Health Center is debuting a $10 million renovation project of the hospital’s complex care units, which provide specialized health care to children with complex medical needs.

The $10 million renovations to the complex care units will allow for greater freedom, movement, and comfortability for patients and staff, and includes a ZeroG 3D machine, a three dimensional body weight support system, one of only two in the entire world.

Officials with Bethany Children’s say the ZeroG 3D machine marks a pivotal breakthrough for pediatric rehabilitation at the health center,

“It provides kind of your top level of physical therapy, occupational therapy training for kids that are coming through traumatic events, or spinal cord injuries or any type of injury that they may need assistance with walking in those type of things,” said CNE Chief Nursing Executive at Bethany Children’s Health Center, Amber Mckenzie.

In just a few days patients will move into the newly renovated complex care units,

“Really excited for the kids to get in here for the staff to get in here,” Mckenzie said, “Improving workflow, improving quality of care, everything from infection control to security…”

The units are spacious and have new technologies to help the patients through their rehab and recovery,

“What we were able to do is install these in room lifts instead of going bed space to bed space with a rolling lift that you might typically see, so they’re easily movable,” said Mckenzie, “Some other really awesome things that we have are these PDI screens, so to keep them interacting and just a typical environment so they’re not just in this bed space.”

Patients in the complex care units typically are there for several months or even years, and the renovations will help keep them comfortable during their stay,

“We also tried to create enough space to where they (parents) had the opportunity where you know they have a little bit more room to interact with their child, and then lots of storage space so that they can bring things from home and really display those things for their children,” Mckenzie said.

Officials with Bethany Children’s say this is just the beginning of the renovation process, and phase two will begin soon.

A portion of the funding allocated for the renovation of the complex care units was sourced from the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funds. Specifically $2 million due to the passing of Bill 2943 by the Oklahoma House & Senate in May of 2023.