Inpatient Medical Stabilization

Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital (CMHH) is a large children’s hospital located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center just 3 miles away the UTHealth Houston Behavioral Sciences Campus.  If your child requires admission to the inpatient level of care, you will first be directed to the CMHH Emergency Room (ER) to assess stability and have quick access to lab work. Your child’s medical status will be triaged here in anticipation of admission to one of the inpatient units upstairs in the hospital.

While in the hospital, your child’s care will be managed and coordinated by a primary pediatrics team. As CMHH is a teaching hospital, you will have residents, fellows, and students as a part of the teams and interfacing with your child and your family. UTHealth Houston’s team of adolescent medicine specialists will serve as consultants for your child’s care and will provide recommendations for eating disorder management.

All patients admitted to CMHH for inpatient eating disorder care will have a dietitian as part of their team who will pre-order all meals during hospitalization, and based on adolescent medicine recommendations, adjust the meal plans as needed. If your child is unable to complete meals by mouth or maintain nutrition orally, a nasogastric tube for refeeding can be implemented temporarily. Blood work and vital signs will be checked regularly throughout hospitalization – the frequency of which will depend on reason for admission.

Patients will also be followed by physical therapy, child life services, expressive therapies, and you can request a chaplain for spiritual support as well. At the outset, only immediate family will be allowed to visit the patient while they are admitted for stabilization.

At discharge from CMHH, your team will make recommendations based on appropriateness of fit for your child to return to the UTHealth Houston Center for Eating Disorders for ongoing PHP, IOP or Outpatient care or provide suggestions for intermediate higher level of care at the residential level if indicated at another facility.