Eastern Switzerland Children's Hospital - familiar, colorful and comprehensive

In the region around the city of St. Gallen, the Eastern Switzerland Children's Hospital provides general primary medical care for children and adolescents together with the practice-based pediatricians. On a day-to-day basis, this means treating everything from highly complex, rare, chronic and sometimes life-shortening illnesses to simple injuries that arrive in the emergency ward in the evening - the entire medical spectrum of a terminal care hospital. Around 47,500 patients come to the Eastern Switzerland Children's Hospital every year, which equates to around 75,000 outpatient visits and almost 5,000 inpatient admissions (figures for 2022). The OKS also guarantees a comprehensive range of services, research and training at university level.

The Eastern Switzerland Children's Hospital is one of the three independent children's hospitals in Switzerland, alongside the Zurich Children's Hospital (Kispi) and the University Children's Hospital of Basel (UKBB). This means that the service contracts are specifically geared towards pediatric and adolescent medicine. Where appropriate, the OKS works closely with other hospitals. The federal and cantonal solution of "outpatient before inpatient" has been part of everyday operations at children's hospitals such as the OKS for many years.

Involvement of parents

A special feature is that parents are closely involved in the treatment whenever possible. The OKS often treats children and adolescents with diseases that are very rare or where those affected do not reach adulthood. For this reason, specialized palliative care for children and adolescents is not primarily about dying and death, but about a life with an adequate quality of life and a lot of hope for a long and good life, in contrast to the common opinion about palliative care for adults. With comprehensive, child-centered and family-oriented medicine, the OKS therefore not only helps families in crises, but also supports them in the long term, including a program that accompanies the transition to adulthood.

Cooperation

The OKS already works very closely with various network partners of St.Gallen Health and hopes to become even better known through the network. A good example is reaching young adults via the School of Medicine, getting them excited about working at the Eastern Switzerland Children's Hospital and thus securing the future of pediatric and adolescent medicine. After all, children and adolescents are not simply "little adults", but have their own specific issues.

Door to door

The move to the campus - next door to the St.Gallen Cantonal Hospital - offers a great opportunity to work even more closely together, not only in the support areas, but also in various medical specialties. Architecturally, the Eastern Switzerland Children's Hospital (OKS) is no different from the other buildings on the campus, but inside it is very different: "We want to offer children and young people an appealing, family-friendly infrastructure. Not only babies and children should feel at home in our hospital, the facilities should also be appealing to teenagers, young adults and our employees," explains Lisa Meier, Head of Organizational Development. Not much is yet being revealed about the interior design of the new hospital. Just this much: "It will be lively and colorful," says Josef Laimbacher, former Head of Adolescent Medicine and sub-project manager for the OKS design. There will also be a hospital school in the new building. Patients who have to be hospitalized for a longer period of time - from kindergarten to the end of vocational or secondary school - will go to school at the OKS. A playground is being created on the spacious roof garden, which is a joint project with the KSSG and can also be used for therapies.

Pediatric medicine is and remains a matter close to the hearts of OKS employees.