Surgical Services – Surgical Services involves families in their child's care from the beginning with a pre-op phone call and pre-surgery tour for families and patients. Each family receives a follow-up call as well. A family kitchen was also developed for the families who receive care in this area. And a Developmental Council has been created to look at child-family centered care issues that affect surgery patients and families.

Third Floor – On Third Floor, staff are making good use of the six larger rooms when the patient census allows. These rooms were designed to allow hospitalized siblings to share a room or to offer more space for children requiring more medical equipment. In particular, these rooms are used whenever possible for our chronically ill patients who often require a lot of physical space for extra equipment. This is a great example of being sensitive to patient and family needs.

Business Office – Although children don't have business in the Children's Hospital Business Office, their parents sometimes do. Because parents often bring their children with them when they have to visit the Business Office, the staff decided it would be great to have a play area for children in their office. The new play area gives children a way to have fun and parents a way to handle their business without the stress of watching and entertaining their child the entire time.

Emergency Department and Child Life – The Children's Hospital Emergency Department and Child Life staff worked together to improve satisfaction regarding pain relief for patients while they are waiting. Child Life compiled pain-relief education that all Emergency Department staff can use to let parents know there are ways to relieve their child's pain in addition to medication. The Emergency Department staff now lets the parent and patient know a doctor will see them soon and suggests distraction and pain management techniques for the patient such as playing with toys, taking deep breaths, squeezing a stress ball, placing a warm blanket where the pain is, and/or sitting or lying in a different position to help cope with the pain while waiting.

Food and Nutrition Services – In response to requests, the Food and Nutrition Services Department found an easy way to get parents of children who receive baby food more involved in their care. Because parents know best what their child likes and dislikes, Food Services prepared a baby food menu to allow parents to select from a list of baby food to be delivered to the child at mealtime. Previously, parents had no choice in the matter and had to make do with whatever kind of baby food was sent to them. Now parents can choose from a variety of different baby foods, all approved by the hospital's clinical dietitians and the Second and Third Floor nursing staff.

Chronic Care – Children's Hospital often serves children with chronic medical conditions that require both continuous care at home and frequent hospital visits. Parents of these children receive an enormous amount of both educational and instructional information, and their clinical care team has seen an increasing need to find a way to consolidate all the necessary information into a more family-friendly format. The Children's Hospital staff that are part of a child's clinical care team have developed a parent notebook. This notebook helps the family keep track of the information it needs to better care for the patient, including lab results, discharge instructions, important phone numbers, community resources and more.

Child Life and Respiratory Care – Child Life and Respiratory Care have worked together to help young children who need breathing treatments through a mask. Respiratory Care knows the mask is an important part of the effectiveness of the treatment, but the mask upsets some young children. Children between the ages of 2 and 4 years with a diagnosis of asthma or reactive airway disease are prioritized to receive a visit by a child life specialist. The specialist meets with the patient and family and assesses the child's ability and willingness to receive breathing treatments while wearing a respiratory mask. For those children who are resistant to wearing the mask, the specialist conducts a play session where the child can give a breathing treatment to a doll or stuffed animal. The child is encouraged to touch and manipulate the mask, allowing him or her to feel a sense of control. Play with the mask is allowed before and after as well as during the treatments. This often helps those children who are resistant to wearing the mask become more cooperative, which helps the Respiratory Care staff who are giving the children their breathing treatments.