Fire Starter
Advocate Hope Children's Hospital
Oak Lawn, IL
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As a member of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI), Hope Children's Hospital is committed to providing highly skilled medical expertise and quality care that is private, child-friendly, family-focused and compassionate. The hospital's more than 175 physicians offer general pediatric care as well as specialty care in 30-plus specialties and subspecialties, including neonatology, developmental medicine, surgery, cardiology, hematology/oncology, genetics, endocrinology, adolescent medicine, critical care, neurology, gastroenterology and behavioral disorders. The hospital also is designated as a Pediatric Critical Care Center by the state of Illinois, indicating the hospital provides the highest level of specialized, pediatric critical care and emergency health services.
Advocate Hope Children's Hospital has one of the largest pediatric cardiology programs in Illinois and the largest pediatric surgical program in the state, providing treatments to children with both congenital and acquired heart disorders. The Heart Institute for Children at Hope Children's Hospital is internationally known, serving as a major center for research and development, including pioneering advances in cardiac echo imaging, such as the transtelephonic transfer of echocardiograms from satellite sites and three-dimensional imaging during multi-plane transesophageal echocardiography. Hybrid procedures, a combination of surgical and transcatheter procedures typically undertaken within the first week of an infant's life to avoid major heart surgery in cases of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, are performed at Hope Children's Hospital. Just 10 years to 15 years ago, palliative care was the only option for babies born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Now, Hope Children's Hospital is not only able to treat all infants born with the defect, but can help the child avoid major open heart surgery in some instances.
The pediatric hematology and oncology division offers the latest advancements in diagnosis and treatment for virtually all childhood cancers and blood disorders. The division is recommended as a Childhood Cancer Treatment and Research Center by the Children's Oncology Group, an international research organization sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The Pediatric Oncology Survivorship in Transition (POST) clinic at Hope Children's Hospital is one of the most extensive pediatric cancer survivors support programs in the nation.
The hospital's reputation for clinical innovation spans the spectrum of specialties. For example, pediatric orthopedic surgeons are using minimally invasive surgery, called hip arthroscopy, to treat children with developmental hip dysplasia, an abnormality in the formation of the hip joint. Surgeons also are performing single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS™), a state-of-the-art procedure designed to minimize scarring, reduce post-surgical pain and shorten recovery time.
The community partnerships forged by Hope Children's Hospital have earned national attention. Live…from the Heart isan educational partnership between the medical center and Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry to give high school and junior high school students the opportunity to expand their scope of learning beyond the classroom setting. The curriculum affords participants the experience of viewing live, real-time heart surgery at Christ Medical Center and conversing with the surgical team during the operation through closed-circuit, two-way interactive Web feed from a museum classroom. Additionally, the hospital has teamed with smaller, local children's museums in Chicago's south and southwest suburbs, providing them with funding to establish health-related exhibits and other learning opportunities, community educational events and health fairs. The hospital's intent is to achieve its vision of inspiring and motivating children to attain their full potential in the fields of science, technology, engineering and medicine.
Perhaps, of most pride to Hope Children's Hospital and staff is its close relationship with the Ronald McDonald House Charities® of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. That relationship has led to the opening of a Ronald McDonald House across the street from the hospital and the hospital's operation of the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a 40-foot, mobile pediatric medical clinic with a staff that provides free health care services to children in underserved areas of Chicago and surrounding communities. In 2008, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile team served more than 600 children and administered nearly 1,000 vaccinations.
The hospital's focus on providing quality, compassionate health care to its patients and their families and its concern for serving surrounding communities are reflected in high patient and associate satisfaction. In the fall of 2008, associate satisfaction jumped to the 96th percentile; it has remained at that level following administration of another satisfaction survey in the spring of 2009. Meanwhile, satisfaction among pediatric medical staff registered at the 93rd percentile on the basis of a Press Ganey survey administered in the late summer/early fall of 2008 and in comparison with results from other hospitals included on a national all-facility list. Physician satisfaction was measured at the 99th percentile when benchmarked with a customized list of children's hospitals in the United States.
High physician and associate satisfaction usually translates into high customer satisfaction, and that axiom has held true for Hope Children's Hospital where, during much of 2009, the overall satisfaction of surveyed patients and families has reached into the upper portion of the 90th percentile range. Families' satisfaction with nursing care has been at the 99th percentile. These numbers are based on benchmark comparisons with other major children's hospitals throughout the country.
Also contributing to the high customer satisfaction scores have been:
- Hope Children's Hospital's Magnet status
- Consistent application of StuderGroup methods, such as hourly rounding on inpatients and family members, achievement of high rates of completed discharge phone calls and use of AIDETSM
- Restructuring of in-hospital meal menus to make them more child-friendly
- Renovation of, and expanded hours and food selections for, the children's hospital cafeteria
- Patient and family rounding by hospital mechanics to ensure that room equipment, such as televisions, are in proper working order.