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Brightening the hospital environment for children

Nurse Leader Weekly, June 2, 2008

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Vividly-painted rooms and theme-decorated floors are adding color to the newly renovated Palmetto Health Children's Hospital in Columbia, SC--and to the patient experience.

Hospital admission can be scary for a child, but the right environment can restore some normalcy during this time of healing. The 150,000-square-foot, $65 million facility, which opens next month, aims to improve the quality of care for pediatric patients and enhance comfort for the entire family. Aside from six floors designed to mimic natural habitats such as the desert, sea, and rainforest, the facility offers play rooms designated for certain age groups, quiet rooms with beds for families to rest, and a chapel. Separate treatment rooms have also been created so patients do not have to undergo procedures in their rooms.

While some additions will ease the healing process, others will improve patient safety. The cancer wing and play room have been set apart from the rest of the facility to limit patients' exposure to infections and the intensive care unit has been updated.

Ideas that help pediatric facilities promote a happier place of healing are becoming widespread, and initiatives have sprung up at other children's hospitals. The Children's Hospital at Johnson City Medical Center in Johnson City, TN, has turned its hallway into a village-styled corridor leading to rooms that upon entrance look like houses. A tree house elevator is one of the highlights at Lutheran Children's Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN, and Baystate Children's Hospital Surgery Center in Springfield, MA, has incorporated a lighthouse entertainment center allowing children a place to watch movies.

Sources: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The State.

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