A Mommy Story

I’ve been lucky that my two children have been fairly healthy kids. They’ve had a few non-routine visits to the doctor, and even a couple of urgent care visits, but our visits to Nationwide Children’s Hospital have been rare. We’ve been to the emergency room twice – both times at the request of their doctor – and we’ve been to the dentistry clinic twice and the speech clinic several times.

Our children’s hospital is an older building (my mother worked there in the mid 70’s and it hasn’t changed that much), and for years it was painfully obvious that the building was too small for everything they needed. So a few years ago construction began on a new building, a hospital that would be state-of-the-art and provide them with everything needed to serve the children in our area, both in medical care and in making the hospital as non-scary as possible.

I was invited to be one of the first to tour the new hospital last weekend, and of course I jumped at the chance. As a nurse, I wanted to get behind the scenes and see what was new at this hospital, and as a parent I wanted to know what my family could expect should we ever need to visit in the future.

We’ve watched this building slowly going up for years. It’s just to the southeast of the downtown skyline, and my original thought was wow, it looks like it’s all windows! Turns out, it is mostly windows, but – as I’ll show you in a bit – it provides some gorgeous views of the city and allows all of the natural light to make the building feel as warm and bright as a hospital can.

Walking into the welcome area from the underground parking garage, I was struck by how pretty it was. Lots of little touches (designed by a group that plans designs for children’s museums) are all over the place to go with the nature theme, including several wooden animal sculptures throughout the hospital.

There are color-coded stripes on the floor to guide you to where you might need to go, along with animal footprints for little ones to look for. Touch screen directories on the walls (like giant iPads) provide additional information on the hospital and can help you find what you’re looking for.

The emergency room waiting area now has a giant fish tank in it. While the light wasn’t on when we were there, it was still fun to watch the fish swimming around. The triage area is larger, and triage rooms all have doors on them for privacy. (And in our case, security – I remember Cordy trying to escape under the curtain the one time we brought her to the hospital.) The rooms in the ER are divided into three areas, handling less serious issues (ear infections, small injuries etc.), more urgent problems (like asthma attacks, concussions, larger injuries), and then the trauma area.

All patient elevators require a keycard to access them. If a child is admitted, parents are given a keycard to activate the elevators, and their keycard is coded to only open for their child’s floor. This provides greater security for the patients, ensuring only the people who are supposed to be there have access to them.

Each floor has a playroom for the patients to use, equipped with games and toys as well as a sink and a dishwasher to sanitize toys.

The playrooms also have large windows with a spectacular view.

The patient rooms were designed to be as child-friendly and welcoming as possible. The curtains are rainbow-striped. The bathroom has child-sized equipment. Behind each patient bed is an LED artwork – the child can control which color to set it on, or have it cycle through all of the colors. We were told that at night if all of the art installations are on and the blinds are open, the building glows in color. 

Each room is also painted with magnetic paint, allowing kids to pin up photos, drawings, or cards from friends and family to make their stay a little more relaxing. For the staff, built-in monitors, a computer and med scanner in each room, and drawers stocked exactly the same way in every room ensure patient safety and reduce the risks for errors and cross-contamination.

Back down in the welcome area, there’s a siblings club where siblings of sick kids can come to play, with staff who are trained to help kids deal with the stress of having a brother or sister in the hospital while still helping them have fun. There’s also the magic forest, a gorgeous area filled with trees that kids can touch and play around. Nature sounds fill the area, making you feel like you’re outside and not in a hospital. It’s very soothing.

The lower level is where the cafeteria is located, along with an outdoor dining area if the weather is nice. I love that each item on the menu lists the nutritional breakdown as well as any allergens in the food. You also won’t find any regular soda here – the entire hospital is a sugar-free beverage zone, meaning you can’t find a drink with added sugar in the cafeteria or the vending machines. It’s a nice reminder to not drink your calories.
 
Finally, for the tech-minded, there’s even a free app you can download to help prepare for a trip to the hospital.  The myChildren’s app provides a map of the hospital, hours for each part of the hospital, a list of doctors and close-to-home clinics, tips on what to bring, and more.

Overall, the new Nationwide Children’s Hospital is beautiful, with lots of attention to detail to reduce the anxiety level of children who need to be there. While I always hope that my daughters never need to come to the hospital, the design of the new hospital makes me feel safe that, if a visit was needed, they would have as positive an experience as possible.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital will be having a Community Day on Sunday, June 10, from 11am to 4pm where the public can come out for a behind-the-scenes tour of the hospital (much like the tour I received) as well as educational stations for the kids, family activities and more. It’s a great chance to introduce your children to the hospital in a fun, friendly setting.

Full disclosure: I was part of a group of bloggers who were invited to tour the hospital. Lunch was provided for us as we spoke with doctors from the hospital after the tour. No monetary compensation was received and all opinions expressed here are my own.