Exceptional Care for Children expands in more ways than one

Exceptional Care for Children, a super-skilled pediatric nursing facility in Newark, is weeks away from an 11-bed growth spurt.

Exceptional Care for Children, or ECC, serves as a safety net for kids, who are too sick to go home, but not sick enough to stay in the hospital. The nonprofit provides children, many of whom suffer from neurological disorders, with their own rooms and 24/7 care.

“First” profiled the organization about a year ago.

“An expansion of 11 beds means that we can accept 11 more children in this environment, which is not home-like, it is home. We do everything we can to offer these children an environment that they can thrive in,” said Annette Moore, Administrator of ECC. “And so that means our area hospitals can discharge children, who can’t go home safely during a transition period, or in need for end of life care or long term chronic care, to us to provide that same level of care and that they won’t live the rest of their days in a hospital environment.”

The expansion will take ECC to 33 beds, up from 22, and is set to be completed by the end of this month. With construction more than 75 percent of the way through, ECC decided to have a pre-grand opening for its social media followers, the likes of which, ECC says, has grown exponentially since last fall.

“We found that people have started to follow us… and it just sort of exploded, I mean, there’s so many hits. My staff uses Facebook continuously… and so as we opened a Twitter account and an ECC page, more and more people just want to be part of this special environment and doing something for these kids,” Moore said.

And the facility’s followers did not disappoint. Publicised strictly on Facebook and Twitter, Moore said, about 100 followers attended Thursday’s pre-grand opening, including many from Twitter’s @NetworkDelaware community, which encourages the use of #netDE for Delaware tweets. New Castle County Council President Tom Kovach learned about the event through Twitter, amazed at the turnout and the power of social media in the First State.

You can follow Exceptional Care for Children for the latest updates on Twitter and Facebook. Sheldon Turtle, ECC’s mascot, even has his own page. The organization is also hosting its 3rd annual spring gala on Apr. 14. The fundraiser drew more than 500 people last year, and ECC hopes to see the numbers top out around 700 this year.

Below, you can see before and after video of ECC’s construction project. Construction started at the end of June and the completion date is set for Feb. 24, 2011.