San Antonio's University Hospital has combined a critical care pediatric heart ward with the features of a five star hotel to make an environment which is both reassuring to the little patient and the family and also leads to better outcomes, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Dr. Adil Husain, who is the Chief of Pediatric Thoracic Surgery for University Health System, says going to the hosptial is always scary, but it is a lot scarier when you are a two or three year old child, or the parent of a little child.
"The hotel rooms that the Center provides, the kitchen facilities, laundry facilities, the IT room and library room, it really creates a home away from home for these families that in many isntances are hundreds of miles away from their loved ones and family members, and will in many cases be with us for several weeks on end," he said.
Dr. Husain says what are called 'variable acuity' rooms include all of the technical and medical equipment needed for a heart transplant or other major heart treatment, with the features and amenities of a hotel room, right now to an iPad loaded with information about that child's particular hart problem, and a favorite movie or game.
The facility was constructed largely with a grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
Dr. Husain says not only do the young patients and their families recover quicker, everybody leaves with a different feeling about what can be a very stressful time in the life of a young family.
"For us, the testament isn't just having children who survive, it isn't just the statistics and the outcomes, its actually the testimonials and the feelings that the families come back and share with us after the experience," he said.