Parents magazine ranked the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children among the “Top 25 Best Children’s Hospitals” in its influential national survey. The results will be announced in the February 2009 issue of Parents magazine (on newsstands nationwide January 13) as part of the magazine’s bi-annual survey to identify the nation’s “Best Children’s Hospitals.”
The Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children was ranked 24th overall, improving ten places from its 34th place ranking in 2007.
“This recognition underscores our commitment to be recognized as a national and definitive leader in children's health care based on patient satisfaction and quality and health outcomes,” says Tom Ferry, CEO of the duPont Hospital for Children. “Over the last several years the duPont Hospital has added significant new programs and services aimed at achieving these goals.”
For example:
A new 14-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with large, all private rooms;
Verified as a Level II Pediatric Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons;
Minimally invasive operating rooms;
Expanded Child Life services;
Emergency Department efforts to reduce wait times and enhance service, including the opening of a new Fast Track area;
A Family Resource Center with Ronald McDonald Family Room with sleep rooms, showers, and laundry facilities;
“At Your Request” inpatient food service;
Outpatient pharmacy;
And a Safety Store that sells child and home safety products at cost.
“As a parent of a medically-complex child, it comes as no surprise to me that duPont Hospital has been acknowledged as one of the very best children’s hospitals in the country,” says Albert Freedman, member of duPont Hospital’s Family Advisory Council. “My son, Jack, receives extraordinary medical care, delivered with compassion by medical professionals and support staff who do whatever it takes to get the job done. Families in our community are blessed to have the support and resources of duPont Hospital available to all of us.”
Nemours is also using many best practices from this facility in the design work of its new Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando that will be breaking ground on February 25, 2009 and opening in 2012.
Parents, which replaced Child magazine as the survey’s publisher, sent its comprehensive survey to 116 full members of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI). More than 75 hospitals responded.
The 250-question survey asked the hospitals about their staff levels and qualifications, family-centeredness, survival rates, number of complex procedures performed, research studies, safeguards to prevent medical errors, and more.
Please visit the Parents magazine web site for more information.
The Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children The Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children is a division of Nemours, which operates one of the nation’s largest health systems devoted to pediatric patient care, teaching and research. Set on a beautiful 300-acre campus near Wilmington, Delaware, the 200-bed duPont Hospital for Children offers all the specialties of pediatric medicine, surgery and dentistry.