A facility has recently opened in Vicksburg to accommodate children who need a little extra care by some caring hands.

Caring Hands Pediatric Extended Care of Vicksburg opened its doors this summer at 3419 Wisconsin Ave.

The center is called a PPEC or prescribed pediatric extended care, which means referred children with medical needs can receive care from a staff of nurses.

“We are a skilled nursing facility for children with special medical needs,” corporate administrator Ginger McBride said.

Some of those medical needs include tube feedings, ventilator care,oxygen saturation monitoring or treatment for seizure disorders. Nurses and direct care workers make up the staff with in-house occupational, physical and speech-language therapy contracted with an outside company. The nurses continue some of the therapy, like stretching exercises, throughout the day with the children.

“We’re doing a lot of developmental training,” McBride said.

A physician must refer children to attend the center, but McBride said she could facilitate contact with the physician for anyone who reaches out to her.

“They have to be approved. We have to have orders from their doctors to come here. So just like a nurse would in a hospital we preform whatever the skills are that they need,” McBride said.

Caring Hands is approved by Mississippi Medicaid and Mississippi Coordinated Access Network.

“It’s paid for by Medicaid,” McBride said.

She said some of the children go to school for part of the day while others have educators come to them at the center.

“We are working with the schools. We have some that just go a half day of school and then they come here after, or come summer, they may need summer care because… they can’t go to a traditional daycare,” McBride said.

Some of the students do not attend school at all because their medical needs are too great. These children are considered homebound, but now they have options.

“There are some that cannot physically go to school and so they are more appropriate to be here with us all day,” registered nurse director Cammie Mashburn said.

Transportation is provided by the center to and from home or school.

McBride said by giving these children a place to go they will have appropriate care, social interaction and their guardians are free to get a job or go to school.

The center can take up to 24 children from birth to 21 years old and at this time is serving eight children. The center’s hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“They can come here for up to 10 hours a day,” McBride said.

She said this is the seventh center of its kind in the state of Mississippi.

For more information, call 601-629-0505.