This week PSMM members were invited for a sneak peek of the expansion plans for Nemours at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del.
First we had a chance to learn more about KidsHealth.org, the award-winning, #1 most-visited site about children’s health and development. Created by The Nemours Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to children’s health, KidsHealth.org is jargon-free and easy for kids, teens and parents to understand.
photo credit: Fun Finds for Families
Then it was time for a tour of the mock rooms, designed for families, by families. Members of the Family Advisory Council, who worked closely with hospital administrators on every last detail of the expansion plans, were also in attendance and shared their children’s stories.
photo credit: Fun Finds for Families
Upon completion in Summer 2014, the 450,000-square-foot expansion will feature larger, technologically advanced, single-patient rooms, a new, expanded emergency department, along with family-centered services, spaces and amenities.
photo credit: Fun Finds for Families
The open-concept nurses’ stations are quite different from the traditional desks you see currently in many hospitals. Their goal here is to remain approachable to parents and families and the central location will allow nurses to easily conduct a visual check of several patients from that one spot.
photo credit: Fun Finds for Families
The new rooms are designed to be spacious, technologically advanced… and single-patient, allowing privacy and comfort to patients and their families.
Here again, the hospital relied heavily on input from the families, kids and teens on their advisory councils. The kids, when given a choice on amenities, chose large flat-screen TVs, for instance. Other change-inspiring input from kids included moving the call button right next to the convertible couch, so that parents would no longer have to get up each time they need to ring their nurse during the night.
photo credit: Fun Finds for Families
Other amenities will include plenty of locked storage, a personal refrigerator in each room, comfortable yet functional furniture (recliner and convertible couch) and a large (very large) bathroom, to allow for wheelchair-bound patients as much as independence as possible.
In their new expansion plans, the staff at Nemours at Alfred I. duPont have taken care of every last detail, so that patients and their families can concentrate on the single most important thing… caring for their child.
To learn more about their expansion plans, visit them online at www.nemours.org/expansion or follow along on Facebook or Twitter @AIDHC for updates.
photo credit: Fun Finds for Families
Jo-Lynne Shane
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