Newsbreak
Children’s hospital to offer care in family-friendly environment
By Shipra Shukla
Sixteen-year-old Kathryn Heal recently came with her mother from Windsor, a small town in Sonoma County, to San Francisco, but this time she wasn’t going to UCSF Children’s Hospital.
Kathryn, whose treatment for type 2 neurofibromatosis had resulted in a 12-day stay in the hospital, was coming to see a high-end theatrical production at the de Young Museum, where teens from Seattle’s Northwest School acted out the written works of authors who are patients at UCSF. The museum also showcased the artwork of young patients like Kathryn, whose painting, titled Laguna Blues, hung on the wall.
“When I had to stay in the hospital last year, being able to have access to paints really helped me,” said Kathryn.
Art is playing a major role at UCSF Children’s Hospital, a role that will be further expanded at the new children’s hospital at Mission Bay. The hospital will itself be an iconic symbol of healing, featuring a kaleidoscope-inspired exterior with a cube-shaped, glass structure that twists slightly from its building frame to evoke a sense of movement. Color will be amplified and glorified with the use of prismatic glass accents on the outside.
“Imagine a small child seeing this colorful building and whimsical art, curious about what’s inside and wanting to enter,” said Cindy Lima, executive director of administration and project director of the new medical center at Mission Bay. “This is our first act of caring.”
Inside, patients and their families will be able to interact with art – everything from sculpted pieces in the lobby to performances by professionals organized under the direction of UCSF Child Life services.
Empowering Children
“Opportunities to tell the story of one’s medical experience through art is critically important and a powerful way to cope, understand and feel heard,” said Michael Towne, coordinator of UCSF Child Life services. “To see a play that you authored performed at the beautiful de Young Museum is a form of validation. We are proud we are able to give that gift to the young people in our charge.”
The teen actors covered myriad topics such as cancer, leukemia and anorexia. In one dramatic scene, the audience was given a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings that can take over a teen’s mind when he or she becomes a victim of an eating disorder. A young actor rendered the mental conflict and physical pain that teens endure when their eating disorder requires them to receive nutrition intravenously in the hospital. The affliction strikes as many as 10 in 100 young women, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The idea behind art therapy is that the creative process of expression is proven to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages.
“With the new hospital, we’ll have an opportunity to expand on our programs to help children, teens and their families get through a health care experience, and also to gain a sense of self-awareness and pride at coping with stressful events,” said Towne. “Child life support and the creative arts do exactly that by empowering children and teenagers to understand their care, be active participants and feel like masters over any hardship.”
The new, 183-bed children’s hospital will be home to a child life center, where children can express themselves in a creative and healing way. The children’s hospital also will house the city’s only pediatric emergency department as well as pediatric urgent, primary and specialty ambulatory care.
UCSF Children’s Hospital at Mission Bay will feature a colorful, kaleidoscope-inspired exterior.
Young patients will have access to a uniquely designed schoolroom to be operated by the San Francisco Unified School District, where they can keep up with their studies and enjoy art, music, creative writing and performances by professional artists like Gabe Turow.
Turow, a musician in residence who recently led a noontime drumming circle, along with West African musicians, for patients and families in the children’s hospital on the Parnassus campus, said the opportunities for art as therapy are vast.
“There are 100 good reasons why you’d want to have music or other kinds of art in a hospital environment because it’s otherwise so sensory-deprived,” said Turow. UCSF brought Turow on board to teach patients how to play musical instruments in one of the only programs of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area.
UCSF recognizes that a child’s illness affects the entire family. Sam Hawgood, interim dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and physician in chief of UCSF Children’s Hospital, was among a team of UCSF leaders who visited the top children’s hospitals around the country in the process of planning for a state-of-the-art, family-centered hospital at Mission Bay. They also convened a family focus group to make suggestions.
Serving Families
“When families were asked what they wanted in a children’s hospital, they stressed the importance of wanting to maintain their lives,” said Hawgood. “The new hospital will include Internet access, areas where families can go to get away from the atmosphere of a hospital, open areas that allow for a connection with nature and areas for play for healthy siblings.”
The children’s hospital will offer age-appropriate, multimedia entertainment for patients and resources for parents to learn how to foster good health and cope with health, illness and hospitalization. Of key importance is the fact that patients and families will be able to spend time together as a family in settings that do not look like a hospital. These include landscaped outdoor areas for respite and relaxation.
“A child’s world revolves around their family,” said Roxanne Fernandes, executive director of UCSF Children’s Hospital. “Having your infant or child become ill and require hospitalization often puts families into crisis, whether the illness is curable, chronic or life-threatening. Our vision is to provide a welcoming, warm and healing environment that will support the family as they continue to care for their child.”
UCSF physicians, nurses, pediatric surgeons, scientists, social workers and administrators emphasize that the new children’s hospital will be better suited to the unique needs of children. Health care providers will work in treatment areas that feature child-sized tools, and will use the most sophisticated technology to diagnose, treat and cure childhood diseases and disorders.
“Children are not little adults, and the way we would treat a 6-year-old is different from how you would treat a 16-year-old with the same disease,” said Diana Farmer, surgeon in chief of UCSF Children’s Hospital and professor in the departments of surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences in the UCSF School of Medicine. “With the new hospital, every caregiver will be someone who specializes in the care of children exclusively – from pediatric surgeons to anesthesiologists to radiologists and just about every specialty you can think of.”
Pioneering Health Care
Farmer is considered an expert in the complex surgical repair of thoracic, airway, bowel and cancer problems in newborn, pediatric and adolescent patients. As a member of the pioneering Fetal Treatment Center team, Farmer spearheads research examining the treatment of spina bifida while the fetus is still in the uterus. She is co-investigator in a number of clinical trials.
In fact, UCSF Children’s Hospital is currently involved in more than 400 research protocols. This number is expected to increase at the new children’s hospital, where young patients will benefit from the presence of cancer specialists. Some 20 percent of all hospitalized children are treated for cancer and cancer-related issues. Young patients also will benefit from the synergistic opportunities for continuing discovery and development of new treatments spawned by basic science researchers already working at the existing, 43-acre Mission Bay campus.
“The synergy with the scientific campus – the neuro institute, the cancer institute, through the developmental biology center at Mission Bay – will really bring scientific advances to bear on disease prevention and treatment,” said Farmer. “The new hospital will allow for the analysis of childhood diseases and shared collaborative solutions.”
While UCSF’s worldwide reputation has long been an attraction for the best and brightest, its ability to compete with the trend toward specialty hospitals can be enhanced by the move to a more sophisticated hospital dedicated to the needs of children. Indeed, many of UCSF’s recruits, who came from top-tier institutions, were attracted by the promise of the new children’s hospital.
“It was important for me to practice in a research and clinical setting that’s devoted to children,” said Tippi MacKenzie, who joined UCSF in September 2007 as an assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery. “I know that the new hospital will help me better serve patients, as well as lend itself to key collaborations such as those between stem cell biologists and surgeons.”
MacKenzie echoes the thoughts of other faculty members who have joined UCSF in the last year, as the anticipation builds for a model children’s hospital for the 21st century. Most of the nation’s premier research institutions now have children’s hospitals, since experts believe that these facilities are better able to address the unique needs of children.
In continuing to attract and maintain top talent, UCSF will be positioned to ensure that its patients have access to the ideas of thought leaders and innovators in the field of pediatrics. This in turn positions the University to better compete for more National Institutes of Health funding, a vital investment in child-focused scientific inquiry and discovery.
“The nation’s top researchers will be attracted to working in a state-of-the-art children’s hospital located at the helm of the biosciences community,” said Farmer. “For the first time in the history of San Francisco, this is about to take place.”