Studer Community Institute

Sacred Heart Children's Hospital gets a facelift

March 2, 2015
/ Staff Reports
/ economy

A redesign of the lobby at The Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart will soon mean a peaceful and more welcoming arrival to the hospital for sick children, pregnant women and their loved ones. Open in its current location since 1996, The Children’s Hospital lobby will receive a complete facelift of gently colored walls, floor patterns, ceiling decorations and furniture. The information desk will move so that guest liaisons can be closer to and facing the entrance doors. This makes staff more visible and accessible to patients and guests, in addition to enhancing security for all. The new lobby will also include a gift shop, staffed by hospital volunteers and completely devoted to merchandise to comfort pediatric and women’s services patients. “A pregnant woman with a high risk for complications, a mother about to deliver her baby, a child being treated for cancer, a frightened parent, a grandparent visiting a baby in the NICU — all of these people and many more come to The Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart during their time of need. They are often anxious and overwhelmed,” said Henry Stovall, president of Sacred Heart Hospital Pensacola. “When these patients and their families walk through our doors, the lobby is their first impression of our facility and our first opportunity to provide them with a comforting, healing environment.” Construction is scheduled to begin on March 9 and take about three months to complete. During that time, the current Children’s Hospital lobby will be closed. Outdoor signage will direct patients, visitors and associates to an alternative entrance – a double door to the right of the current entrance, behind parking spaces for the hospital’s fleet of pediatric and neonatal transport vehicles. The alternative entrance leads into a hallway, through which guests can access the main hospital or take the elevators to the second or third floors of The Children’s Hospital. First floor services of The Children’s Hospital – including The Nesting Place Women’s Boutique and the Regional Perinatal Center for High-Risk Pregnancy – will remain in their current locations and can be accessed through the temporary entrance. A hospital volunteer or security guard will be stationed at the temporary entrance at all times to answer questions and provide directions. In addition to The Children’s Hospital, this lobby also serves as a primary entrance for pregnant mothers in need of obstetrical services – including the Labor and Delivery Unit, the Obstetrical Emergency Care Center, The Nesting Place Women’s Boutique and the Regional Perinatal Center for High-Risk Pregnancy. The bronze statue of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, which currently stands in the center of The Children’s Hospital lobby, will be relocated to the hospital’s Meditation Garden area between Nemours Children’s Clinic and Sacred Heart’s administration offices. The statue was donated to The Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart by the Mother Seton Guild and was completed by a French artist. “The Mother Seton Guild selected the new location for our statue so that all children and families coming through the doors of The Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart will be welcomed by the comforting presence of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, who had a special connection with children, opening the first American Catholic parish school and establishing the first American Catholic orphanage,” said Stovall. “The Meditation Garden, which is dedicated to the Daughters of Charity, provides a place of peace for our visitors and patients, a spot from which Mother Seton can watch over the care of our children.”

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Sacred Heart Children's Hospital gets a facelift

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