On Wednesday, April 24, leadership with Bryan Honda and Cape Fear Valley Health (CFVH) came together at the Center for Medical Education and Neuroscience for the unveiling of a very special new addition to The Children’s Center at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville. 

President of Bryan Honda, Eason Bryan, CFHV CEO Mike Nagowski and CFVH Chief Medical Officer Samuel Fleishman, MD were proud to introduce the Honda Shogo, a child sized, ride-on vehicle specifically designed to navigate hospital hallways. A little car on a big mission, it allows pediatric inpatients to drive themselves around the hospital for treatments, appointments and procedures as an alternative to using a wheelchair. 

The Honda Shogo was designed, developed and manufactured by Honda Performance Development. The Shogo vehicle was built to provide a ‘real driving’ experience for children ages 4-9 with safety in mind. It has easy to use power controls on the steering wheel, with speeds ranging from one to five miles per hour that are controlled by a caregiver. Additional features include a IV pole/ portable monitoring, a push bar for manual operation if needed, a bucket for stuffed friends, different horn sounds and a holder for personalized license plates that can be designed by the patients. 

The Honda Shogo is the center of American Honda Motor Company’s Project Courage which was developed by Honda to alleviate anxiety for children who deal with hospitalization day to day. The Creators of Project Courage also noted that research shows that stress and anxiety can detract from the healing process. 

“The team of Bryan Honda works very hard to serve our customers. And that has provided us the opportunity to serve our community. And today we're presenting the Shogo which was the first unit at any hospital in the Carolinas and we certainly hope that this inspires others to do some good,” said Bryan.

The Children’s Center at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center includes a 19-bed Pediatric Unit and a seven bed Pediatric ICU. During the last fiscal year, there were more than 3400 admissions to the Children’s Center. According to Zachary Wilkerson, Corporate Director of Patient Services at CFVH, there were more than 1100 transport requests to or from The Children’s Center last year. 

“At Cape Fear Valley, we’re very proud of what we do for our children. When a child comes to the hospital whether they’re in our ICUs, on the medical floors or in surgery, we do the very best we can to make sure they have the very best clinical experience, but experience goes beyond just the clinical piece of it,” said Nagowski. “For us to be able to go beyond the clinical service and provide an experience that just brightens their day and gives them something to look forward to and not just them, but the colleagues they have in the units, it's just fabulous.” 

Bryan Honda is gifting one Shogo to CFVH at no cost to the hospital. Bryan shared that the Bryan Honda team would be open to providing more if they become available. 

“There is a limited initial supply of the Shogos and I think that will depend on how many other dealers do this for their local hospitals. Hopefully more will, that would make me very happy. I would love for North Carolina to be the state with the most Shogos,” said Bryan. 

“Our doctors and staff in the Children's Center were excited to learn about the Honda Shogo. This is going to help make children's visits to the hospital a little less stressful and scary. Anything that can bring a moment of unexpected fun to a child’s hospital stay is a wonderful gift for our patients, their families and the health care team,” shared Fleishman. “This last fiscal year, there were about 3500 admissions to Children's Center that breaks down to about 2600 in the Pediatric Unit and about eight 900 in the Pediatric Intensive Care unit.

Following the announcement, the Shogo was off to pick up its first patient at the Children’s Center. 

“I know that the Shogo is going to put miles of smiles on faces when people see it in the hallway. And not just with children who get to take the wheel. We're all going to be a little lighter when we see this go down the hall,” concluded Fleishman.