A Hospital, a Home
By David Wahlberg, The Wisconsin State Journal
Jul. 23–Jackie Hunter, whose 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, spent a month at UW Children’s Hospital and returns for checkups, doesn’t have complaints about the care.
But she doesn’t like the cramped quarters. Hunter, her husband, Don, and their other daughter, Catie, 9, have had to compete for space with nurses and IV poles in the 125-square-foot rooms.
“We always come as a family,” said Hunter, of Fort Atkinson. “Sometimes it gets pretty doggone crowded.”
Beginning in August, patients and families will have spacious rooms and other amenities at the new, $78 million UW Children’s Hospital. The six-story hospital is connected to UW Hospital, where the old children’s hospital has been on the fourth floor.
Unlike the old children’s hospital, built in the 1970s within the adult hospital, the new one has been designed with children and families in mind, administrators say.
Rooms are twice as large, with sleeper sofas and lockers. Six play areas can be found; the old children’s hospital has one.
Each floor has a Wisconsin outdoors theme — farm, lakes, prairie, North Woods, rivers and streams. Corresponding icons appear on signs, hallways, light fixtures and even bathroom tiles. (Challenge: Find the stone-panel Holstein with a spot shaped like the state. Hint: It’s near the hanging lights that look like milk bottles.)
The main floor, fashioned after a Wisconsin town, is Disney-esque.
A small movie theater has a big marquee. Barbershop lights flash near a pharmacy and gift shop. Memorial Union chairs and tables sit near a caf. An electric fireplace glows beside a sugar maple tree. A railroad underpass leads to a depot, the information desk.
Behind a replica of the Fond du Lac Lighthouse is a family resource center, with Internet access and a health librarian. Across the hall is a day-care room for patients’ siblings. Nearby is a performance space for musicians or magicians.
“We have always offered great care for children, but we haven’t been able to offer all of the services we have wanted to,” said Donna Sollenberger, chief executive officer of UW Hospital, which includes the children’s hospital. “This hospital lets us do that.”
David Berry, vice president for the children’s hospital, helped infuse the building with details, such as bathroom tiles designed by children of hospital employees and construction workers.
“A lot of these things don’t add much to the cost, but they add a lot to the environment,” Berry said.
Placing the building next to UW Hospital should keep expenses down, Sollenberger said. Administrators considered building the children’s hospital in other parts of Madison, she said, but the proximity means the hospitals can share services such as the kitchen, the pharmacy and labs.
The children’s hospital was funded by $37 million in bonds and $41 million in fundraising, including a $10 million flagship gift from American Family Insurance.
One of many fundraising efforts was led by Jeff and Kristin Tracy of Lodi. Their 18-month-old son Tyler died in 2003 after being born with a rare genetic disease that made his body unable to process carbohydrates.
The Tracys spent long days at the children’s hospital. They said they had a hard time finding people to care for their two other children — McKayla, now 8, and Austin, now 7. They have another child, Collin, 2.
They have raised $75,000, with a goal of $200,000, for Tyler’s Place, the day-care room for siblings.
Brothers and sisters of hospitalized children “are going through a whole bunch of emotions you don’t really understand,” Jeff Tracy said. “We wanted to provide some relief.”
Jim Gilmore’s 6-year-old son James spent four months at the hospital in 2001 while being treated for leukemia. Gilmore and his wife, who was pregnant at the time, spent most days and nights there too.
One of many reasons the experience was difficult was that there was no place to exercise, said Gilmore, an avid runner and bicyclist.
The new hospital has exercise machines in a rehabilitation room that will be open to families on evenings and weekends.
“People will feel much more at home in this hospital,” said Gilmore, a development officer for UW Hospital. “That’s important because it often becomes your home.”
In addition to new comforts, the hospital will offer new services.
A special room lined with lead will provide MIBG therapy, in which a radioactive chemical binds to tumor cells to kill them. Patients must be isolated for three to five days until their radioactivity wears off.
The treatment, available at only a few hospitals around the country, is used for neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system. It’s the kind of cancer Sarah Hunter of Fort Atkinson has had.
Another new service is the Positive Image Center. Staff will provide wigs, scarves and makeup advice to children or teenagers who want to cover up hair loss or scars.
Tess Roling, an 11-year-old from Boscobel, said she plans to use the center.
The gymnast, who is about to enter sixth grade, has a lymphatic malformation. Sometimes called cystic hygroma, the condition causes large cysts on her neck.
Four surgeries to remove the cysts have left scars.
“I like my scars; I think they’re cool,” Tess said.
But she’s a planner. She’s thinking ahead to a day when she might want to soften the marks.
“I’ll probably want to cover them up for my senior picture,” she said.
UW Children’s Hospital Open House When: 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Where: UW Children’s Hospital, 1675 Highland Ave. What: Tours, scavenger hunts, music, meetings with medical staff. Parking: UW lots 60 and 76, north of UW Hospital. Shuttle buses available from there. For more information: Call 263-4869 or visit www.uwhealth.org/kids.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wisconsin State Journal
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