Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital officially opened its office in Poughkeepsie today.

The well-known name in children’s health care services is housed at the MidHudson Regional Hospital.

“A center of excellence in Dutchess County providing those key pediatric services will not only provide great health care but also relief and a degree of hope to families, in particular young people who have to go through the health care system,” says Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.

The Poughkeepsie location has a pediatric emergency room and inpatient care services. Adolescents from birth to 18 years old won’t have to leave the county for many health care needs.

Patients like Emilie Saltzman, of Hopewell Junction, are grateful for the new location, saying in part, “They treat every patient there so they feel like they’re really at home.”

Saltzman suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2015 after being thrown from a horse. Her mother tells News 12 that “she had a 10% chance for recovery…Thank God she had a helmet on.”

Saltzman and her family stayed at the Valhalla location hospital for weeks where they say non-stop attention was given as she recovered.

Now, with the Poughkeepsie location, families like the Saltzman’s won’t have to travel far.

“That’s really the idea. To be able to have families and their kids get the care they need without having to travel the great distance necessarily,” says Michael Gewitz, physician-in-chief of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital.

News 12 is told children who are more critically injured or ill will be transferred and treated at the Valhalla location.