With patient- and visitor-friendly themes such as butterflies, sunflowers and cowboy boots, the new acute care patient rooms are 20 to 25 percent larger than the hospital’s current rooms and are flexible in their design for patients with varying degrees of illness. Aimed at promoting a healing environment, the room design allows for natural light and additional family space. Each room is stocked with amenities such as television sets wired for closed-circuit broadcasts and tables for homework or drawing. The rooms also cater to parents with a sofa that converts into a bed, a safe and extra storage space.

In addition, a new wayfinding system, which uses a series of colors, textures and Texas-themed icons such as the armadillo and the cactus, will help visitors easily navigate through the hospital. The halls are painted in pastel hues of yellow, purple and green and have features such as ceilings lit with shooting stars and colored projections of jackrabbits and bluebonnets. Indirect lighting is used in the halls. And a balloon mural greets patients and visitors on four of the six new floors.

Also in September, Children’s finished construction of the skybridge that crosses the rail line connecting the adjacent Children’s Pavilion – housing the Pavilion Surgery Center, parking garage and additional office space – to the main hospital.

Children’s enjoys a stellar reputation as one of the finest pediatric facilities in the United States, recognized by organizations such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations each year. To find a pediatrician or other specialist on the medical staff at Children’s, call the hospital’s physician referral service at 877-445-1234 or visit www.childrens.com.