Patient and Family Experience
The patient and family experience
Pediatric care is about so much more than caring for little adults. Children have special needs and unique ways of processing information This is why we took special care when designing and building our new spaces. We have made it easy for families to access our facilities, and designed our new campus with each step of the patient and family experience in mind, from the moment they arrive at our hospital until long after they have left.
Natural light, bright colors, and the engaging themes of nature and music that are woven throughout the campus foster an environment of healing. These intentional design elements can be experienced throughout the hospital and main campus clinic. From our Betty and Hank Lauricella Pavilion, to our Henry Clay Ave. Skybridge, and our new Main Concourse that runs the length of the hospital, the outside has been brought indoors with floor to ceiling windows with views of our park-like campus Throughout the building, subtle elements of music and nature have been infused throughout design elements, building navigation, and wayfinding.
Improved access
For many, their Children’s Hospital experience begins upon arrival to our Uptown New Orleans campus. Our new four-story, 600-car parking garage allows patients and families ease of access to our hospital and clinics like never before. Now, anyone visiting the hospital, whether for a same day surgery, a clinic visit, or simply to visit a patient, can park for free and walk into the hospital through our glass-enclosed skybridge, suspended over Henry Clay Avenue. The new, expansive main concourse also offers easy access to patient and family services, including an all new expanded café and dining area, gift shop, chapel, and family resource center. The main concourse also features an entrance with dedicated patient/family parking for our Emergency Department. The ED includes a new check-in and waiting area located right inside the Main Concourse.
Child Life
An important program that sets a children’s hospital apart is its Child Life Program. This department, comprised of Child Life and Creative Therapists, is a service not billed to patient families or insurance providers, but is an essential team that makes all the difference when it comes to enhancing the child’s experience. Child Life helps children cope through their hospital experience and helps them understand treatments and procedures in a way they can understand. In our campus transformation, special care was taken to create a dedicated space to house this integral program. With new child playrooms, a teen activity room, a sensory room for those with special needs, and a dedicated space for children to gather, the Child Life program at Children’s Hospital New Orleans will help kids continue to be kids while they are receiving care in the hospital.
Family Housing
At Children’s Hospital New Orleans, when we care for a child, we also care for the whole family. As Louisiana’s children’s hospital, we treat children from all 64 parishes across the state and the Gulf South. We knew we needed ensure that families who have traveled from far and wide for their children to receive the highest levels of pediatric care at our hospital have a safe place to stay that is close to their child.
We partnered with Hogs for the Cause and Ronald McDonald House Charities to make this vision a reality. Now, our Hogs for the Cause Family Center offers 13 rooms and private bathrooms for the families of children staying in our hospital. Soon, with the completion of the new Ronald McDonald House on the Children’s Hospital campus, there will be an additional 22 rooms for families, as well as new common spaces, including a spacious kitchen, dining room, playroom, library, and a backyard. These spaces provide a place of respite for families to take a break from the business of the hospital to rest, eat, or even shower just feet away from their child.