Topics - Patient and Family Resource Centers
The Connelly Resource Center for Families,
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has had a longstanding commitment to family-centered care. In the early 1990’s it held Executive Forums, creating opportunities for senior leadership at the hospital to learn directly from and have dialogue with families about their needs, concerns, and priorities. Access to information and practical support were two of the priority needs that emerged in these sessions.
Space was very limited within the hospital. The initial resource rooms were very small, unit-based rooms, not much larger than closets. Information files were located under couches to conserve space.
After extensive planning, new space was found on the eighth floor of the hospital, and in 1997, the 4,000-square-foot Connelly Resource Center for Families was opened. In addition to a family library, children’s library, and learning center with education rooms, this space contains a comfortable living room area, kitchen, laundry facilities, and some sleeping space for families.
Collaboration with Patients/Families. Families and administrators teamed together in fundraising for the Connelly Center. They met with potential funders to discuss the purpose of the center and outline funding opportunities. Families worked closely with architects to plan the center.
The classes taught in the Learning Center of the Connelly Resource Center for Families have been with assistance from professional/professional committees. Specialty committees, such as pulmonology, neonatology, and cardiology, all have parent members.
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| The coffee hours are held regularly in the Connelly Center and are coordinated by families. |
The coffee hours held regularly in the Connelly Center (see description below) are coordinated by families. Although their chief purpose is to enhance family-to-family support and networking, the coffee hours also present opportunities for staff to learn informally about how the Resource Center is meeting family needs.
Programs/Services. The Connelly Resource Center, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offers:
- A quiet place to meet other families.
- Information on places to stay in the area.
- Ideas about family-oriented activities in the Philadelphia area.
- A bulletin board where families can exchange ideas and phone numbers.
- Kitchen, washers (free detergent), dryers, lockers, and telephones.
- Coffee hours sponsored by the hospital’s Women’s Committee.
The kitchen creates a mini-homelike environment. Snacks and sodas are available, and parents can store food as well as use a microwave.
There are five bedrooms in the Resource Center, each with a double bed, a locker, an alarm clock, and a telephone so the child’s hospital unit can call during the night if they need to get in touch with the family. Families need to sign up for these rooms, which are usually completely booked with a waiting list. Priority use is given to families in the PICU, the NICU, and the CICU since all of the other rooms in the hospital have sleep space next to the child’s bed.
The Family Library in the Connelly Center is open a total of 53 hours per week, including hours four evenings, and both Saturday and Sunday.
The Library is a quiet, comfortable place where families can find health care, parenting, and recreational information in books, pamphlets, magazines, audio and video recordings, and access to the Internet. The library offers space for reading, viewing educational videos, and doing word processing and other business functions families may need.
The Library has Internet access on all of its personal computers. Next to the computers are posted instructions for families on how to use the Internet and instructions for evaluating websites. Additionally, certain sites on the Internet have been bookmarked for families, including Kids and Sibs, Family Village, Ask Noah, Pubmed, Oncolink, and the Philadelphia newspaper.
The Children's Library is designed as a fun place for children to learn. It holds a collection of books on a broad range of health-related topics and is equipped with computers, software, and videos to help children learn about health and the human body. Examples of popular software include "The Magic Schoolbus," "Living Books," "Virtual Body," and "Orley's Draw Story." Special events include storytelling, entertainment, and sibling workshops.
The Family Learning Center is a place where families can learn the basic and specialized skills they need to care for their children at home. A fully-equipped hospital room is located within the center for teaching. Two classrooms are available for scheduled classes and guest speakers, as well as for individualized instruction arranged by a child’s health care team and/or by the hospital’s home care services. A CPR class is offered six times a week. Other class offerings include: CPR for a child with a tracheostomy, diabetes education, breastmilk pumping and storage, nebulizer therapy, growth hormone injections, epogen injections, pulse oximetry, NG/G-tube classes, TPN, injections, respiratory therapy, newborn care, and central line care. A two-day long safe sitter-training program is also offered occasionally for older siblings and adolescents.
An hour-long program, Partners for Excellence, is taught regularly by parents. The program gives families ideas about using hospital resources effectively. Another program, Junior Partners, helps patients’ siblings learn about the hospital in a fun way.
For further information on classes, services, resources, visit: www.chop.edu/pat_care_fam_serv/connelly_ctr.shtml
Photo credit: Karlsberger Companies÷Architect-of-Record; Robert Benson and Brad Feinknopf÷photographers
