Children get ‘Hands On’ at Same Day Surgery
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – A new space offering entertainment and distraction for children visiting or being treated at the Same Day Surgery Center at Johnson City Medical Center is now available though the creativity of Hands On! Regional Museum.
A corner section of the Same Day Surgery waiting room has been redesigned as a child-friendly area offering educational toys and activities.
“It’s built to look like a little community with a school, a farm and a house,” said Trish Patterson, executive director of Hands On. “Each of those components has something that is interactive for children, and much of those activities are also designed to enhance learning.”
Mountain States Health Alliance, the parent company to JCMC, has long sponsored an exhibit at the museum titled “Amazing Me,” which was recently expanded. Patterson said the decision was made to grow the partnership between the hospital and the museum further by creating this children’s section inside the Same Day Surgery Center. Mountain States provided the funding for the materials while the museum provided the creativity and the manpower.
“We worked to figure out what we could put in there that would be suitable for a waiting room and that would not create a space requiring picking up a lot of things,” said Liz Nevil, exhibits manager for Hands On. “We brought some bright glows to the area that should make it more welcoming for children.”
The exhibit includes a numbers game, lift-and-peak games and a television offering movies and additional information about Hands On.
“This is a great opportunity for us to partner with the hospital – which has been a major sponsor – while also exposing more children to the presence of our museum in downtown Johnson City,” Patterson said, adding that a sign for Hands On is posted in the Center and free tickets to the museum will be given to pediatric patients.
JCMC is the only location outside the museum where Hands On has a presence, though Patterson said she is interested in working with other organizations that have similar needs.
“Waiting for a procedure can be a time of high anxiety for a child,” said Tom Tull, Mountain States assistant vice president for Washington County Operations and Guest Services. “This partnership has created a diversion for that fear and anxiety. This is exactly the type of partnership Mountain States Health Alliance is seeking, where both organizations benefit.”
About Mountain States Health Alliance
Mountain States Health Alliance, a not-for-profit healthcare organization based in Johnson City, Tenn., operates a family of hospitals in a 29-county, four-state region (Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Southeastern Kentucky and Western North Carolina). Mountain States offers a large tertiary hospital, several community hospitals, two critical access hospitals, rehabilitation, a children’s hospital, a behavioral health hospital, home care and hospice services as well as a comprehensive medical management corporation. Its 9,000 team members are committed to its mission of bringing loving care to health care. For more information, visit www.msha.com.
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