Driscoll Children's Hospital Connects Families
with needed Information and Support

Wednesday, December 15, 2004
10 a.m.

(Corpus Christi, TX) It is Driscoll Children's Hospital great honor to announce the opening of The Family Connection on December 15, 2004 at 10 am. This resource center will offer diverse resources to the families of patients visiting Driscoll Children's Hospital.

For parents and families of patients, hospital stays have the potential for great stress and confusion. Driscoll Children's Hospital together with the healthcare team strives to educate families on the diagnosis of the patient in order to minimize any anxiety. The Family Connection is a relaxing environment designed around the needs of the family. While at the hospital, family members are welcome to visit its library to learn more about their child’s particular condition or treatment options. Books, computers, audio and video resources are made available to families as well as the playful, child-friendly atmosphere that one comes to expect from Driscoll Children's Hospital.

The Family Connection was born out of the hard work and dedication of the Family Advisory Board. This board is comprised of patient’s families who volunteer their time to help make Driscoll Children's Hospital a better place. It was their belief that a resource center available to patients and their families to read books, listen to tapes, or watch videos designed to help educate them on their child’s condition and the resources available to help them was greatly needed. Internet access also helps families learn about the latest advancements and aids for their child. The board also thought this was needed within the hospital so a parent could learn and study at their own convenience and pace at the hospital without having to leave their child.

“The Family Advisory Board believes The Family Connection fills a need in our community for families who have children with chronic illnesses or children who are ill at Driscoll Children's Hospital. It is important that families have access to information, resources and support. We are proud to be a part of the team that put the Connection together,” says Kim Schmid of the Family Advisory Board.

The center is a free resource for families thanks to Driscoll Children's Hospital’s Auxiliary who raised $8,000 for the room, the Behmann Brothers Foundation who donated an additional $1,000 and Ray Boss of Chemcel who donated the computers for the facility.

About Driscoll Children’s Hospital
“Improve the health of adults and you give them back their health …
Improve the health of children and you give them their life.”

Since opening its doors in 1953, Driscoll Children’s Hospital has been offering hope and healing to the children of South Texas for half a century. The facility is a 189-bed pediatric tertiary care center with pediatric board-certified specialists representing 19 medical and nine surgical specialties. Each year, more than 6,000 children are admitted for inpatient care, 5,000 for day surgery, and 50,000 for outpatient primary and specialty care, as well as 40,000 for emergency care, as the first South Texas hospital with emergency services exclusively for children. Additionally, Driscoll maintains a state-of-the-art ground/air transport team, 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit, 40-bed neonatal intensive care unit, and specialized medical outreach.

www.driscollchildrens.org

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