Inpatient eating disorders program for children and adolescents opens at Rogers

This month, Rogers Memorial Hospital (Oconomowoc, Wisc.) will be opening a new 13-bed inpatient eating disorders unit dedicated to children and adolescents. The unit will join the hospital’s current adolescent eating disorders services and is currently one of a handful of programs nationally which accepts children as young as 8 years old.

“We are delighted to open this unit at Rogers’ Oconomowoc campus, with the plan of treating the wide spectrum of childhood and adolescent feeding and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder,” said Dr. Tracey Cornella-Carlson, medical director of child and adolescent services. “In addition, our patients will benefit from our ability to treat co-occurring anxiety disorders often seen at this age, thanks to experts we can access right here on campus.”

The new inpatient area will serve both males and females, ages 8 to 18, and the program will utilize evidence-based treatment. Program officials say that day-to-day activities are structured, yet manageable, to help stabilize the young patients nutritionally and medically, while preparing them with tools for lasting recovery at home and at school.

The new unit will include:

• Five single rooms and four double rooms.
• A dining area with Lucite table to provide staff a transparent view at meal and snack times.
• Motion sensors to help monitor patients with obsessive or compulsive exercise tendencies.
• A sun porch group room for light movement and stretching groups.

The new unit completes the relocation of child and adolescent eating disorders inpatient care which moved from Rogers’ metro Milwaukee campus in West Allis in 2012 to bring services closer to the nationally recognized residential treatment services in Oconomowoc.