My colleague Jodi Bauers, child life manager, attended the preview exhibit at LaFontsee Galleries last week. Here are her thoughts about the art work being produced by children for the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital:

I had a sneak preview of some of the art that has been made by kids while it was being hung last Thursday at LaFontsee Galleries in preparation for the show opening the next night.  All of the pictures were incredible; brightly colored designs, some simple some complex.  I am pleased to share some photos I took so you get a sense of what I saw.

In the children's hospital today, art welcomes, it inspires, it distracts, it brings comfort, it provides direction.  I know in the new children's hospital the art will continue to do the same, but will represent even more.  To have the majority of art be created by children will let other children and teens know that the hospital is a healing environment designed to care for children.

I returned for the art show Friday night.  The gallery was full of artwork and people admiring it.  Some were the young artists, who had come to see their creations displayed, some were just waiting for a preview of what was to be displayed on the walls of the new hospital.  Everyone was in awe of what they were seeing. Kids got busy making art, as you can see in the news coverage, working with artists from LaFontsee Galleries.

It will take a lot of artwork to fill the floors of our new children's hospital.  But, from seeing the first glimpse, I know that many are eager to help create more art to cover the walls with hope and healing. 

   

Yesterday as I was waiting for the elevator to go to my car at the end of the day, I noticed a family with two children. The father was holding his four-year-old daughter. She was crying after having her blood drawn. They looked lost so I asked if I could help.

They needed to go to have an X-ray in radiology. In our current environment, this means the family had to go across Barclay Street from the Helen DeVos Children's Outpatient Center into Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital and navigate through many hallways to reach pediatric radiology on the other side of the building.

It had already been a long afternoon for the child and her family. It started with her appointment with a pulmonologist in the Outpatient Center, then a trip to the laboratory blood draw site in another part of that building. It was now 5pm.

I walked them to Radiology and we got talking about how much easier it will be to have radiology exams in the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital opening on 1-11-11. Their child had been hospitalized several times and was a frequent user of our services. I explained that we will have a dedicated pediatric radiology department with close access to sedation services, a nice playroom and even a "classroom" where our child life staff can teach kids what the procedure or test will be like beforehand to minimize fear.

We are so fortunate to have pediatric radiologists right here in Grand Rapids. When my 10-year-old son fell off the playground equipment last fall and broke his arm, I learned just how specialized that field is. A child's growing bones are different than adults and a pediatric radiologist is trained to recognize injuries to a bone's growth plates.

In the new children's hospital we will have dedicated pediatric radiology and diagnostic imaging located right next to the emergency department and sedation services. All of the equipment will be brand new including two magnetic resonance imagers, and two computed tomography scanners providing the most detailed pictures in the fastest scan time and the lowest exposure to radiation.

These are some of the service and technology improvements that are getting all of us very excited about the opening of the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in just 328 days.