Patients' families have new area for resting at Akron Children's
3/08/2008
A new family-friendly area tucked inside Akron Children's Hospital lets parents get some rest without getting too far away from their critically ill babies.
Since last week, the hospital's volunteer department has been staffing the Reinberger Family Center around the clock, providing overnight accommodations as needed.
The family center offers televisions, comfortable couches and oversized chairs, a replica fireplace, a quiet area, showers, a play area for siblings, a kitchen with vending machines, a library with several computers and a laundry area.
In addition, the Sterling Jewelers Family Area of the center includes three lactation rooms with TVs for breast-feeding moms and six private, hotel-style rooms, where parents can nap or spend the night.
''We want to help people feel a little more at home at a time when they have to be away from home for a little while for a situation like this,'' said Judy Pedrotty, the hospi
tal's director of volunteer services.
The center is open to all families with a child in the hospital.
But the overnight accommodations primarily are being used by parents with babies in the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU). Unlike other units of the hospital, the NICU doesn't offer private rooms that would allow parents to spend the night next to their critically ill child.
Each year, the hospital's NICU cares for about 900 newborns from all over eastern Ohio.
Because Children's draws patients from such a sprawling area, many families travel an hour or two from home.
The hospital staff determines which families can use the new center's overnight accommodations based on the child's condition and other factors.
Parents still are encouraged to stay at the nearby Ronald McDonald House, Pedrotty said, ''but that can be too far away if you have a child who is really critically ill.''
During a recent snowstorm, an Amish woman whose newborn is being treated in the hospital's NICU stayed in the new facility, along with her mother.
The two couldn't get a room at the nearby Ronald McDonald House, which was full. But they didn't want to leave the baby and hire a driver to travel back to Amish country.
''We had a good place to sleep,'' said the grateful grandmother, who did not want the family's name used for religious reasons. ''We think it's nice here.''
In the old days
Before the center opened, the NICU area only offered a cramped waiting area off the main hallway.
The hospital transformed its former inpatient pharmacy and an old outdoor smoking area into the 6,000-square-foot family retreat, which is decorated throughout with stone, oak and warm beige tones.
The Reinberger Foundation provided a $400,000 grant to help pay for the $1.2 million project. Sterling Jewelers also contributed $260,000.
Tracey Herstich, a nurse practitioner in the hospital's pediatric intensive-care unit, said she's grateful to have the new family center.
Herstich's son, Andrew, has been a patient in the hospital's NICU since he recently was born nine weeks premature.
For now, she often eats lunch at the family center with other NICU mothers, who share stories about their babies' successes and setbacks.
When she returns to work, she plans to encourage her patients' families to visit the center, too.
''It's like a miniretreat from sitting at the bedside,'' she said on a recent morning while sitting near the fireplace after putting Andrew down for a nap. ''You don't know you're in a hospital when you're sitting in here.''
In service to families
Pediatric hospitals historically have differentiated themselves from other general hospitals by providing ''family-centered care,'' said Gillian Ray, spokeswoman for the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions.
But in recent years, she said, children's hospitals nationwide have been making changes to make themselves even more family-focused.
Studies have shown that more comfortable medical environments for pediatric patients and their families ''can actually affect the quality of care children receive and affect health outcomes,'' she said.
Other area programs
At least two other pediatric providers in Northeast Ohio have adopted the ''family room'' concept.
This year, the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital partnered with the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland to open its new Ronald McDonald Family Room for patients' families.
The on-site center offers a kitchen, two computers with Internet access, a television area, a play area for siblings, showers and a laundry facility.
Volunteers staff the room daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to provide free coffee and snacks, as well as a friendly ear, said Kimberly Baggs, the Ronald McDonald Family Room coordinator.
''What we are trying to do with this room is provide some of the comforts of home to families with a child who is here at the hospital,'' Baggs said. '' . . . We call it, 'A place to go when you just can't go home.' ''
Hospital family room
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland also has offered a Ronald McDonald Family Room for two years.
The family room provides an escape for parents ''to collect thoughts and play with siblings,'' Rainbow spokeswoman Amanda Todorovich said.
''The whole family room is off-limits for medical conversations,'' she said.
Rainbow also offers six sleeping rooms near its NICU that can be used by parents on an as-needed basis, Todorovich said. Next year, Rainbow is converting its NICU to all-private rooms that will allow parents to stay by their newborn's side.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.