St. Joseph’s Hospital-South has added a designated sensory room to its pediatric emergency room. The sensory room helps meet the needs of pediatric patients coming to the ER needing medical treatment and attention who have varying cognitive conditions, disabilities and sensory processing needs, such as autism spectrum disorder.
A sensory room is a specially designed place that provides individuals with a controlled and immersive sensory experience. It promotes a calming environment that can lessen overstimulation.
St. Joseph’s Hospital-South’s child life specialists, Danielle Palomo and Margaret Armstrong, provide emotional support to help children overcome the fear and uncertainty often associated with coming to the ER and being in the hospital. They work alongside doctors and nurses to help reduce children’s fear, anxiety and pain. They also explain diagnoses and procedures in a kid-friendly way and use play to distract and calm young patients, their siblings and sometimes their parents too. Palomo, Armstrong and the hospital’s pediatric ER team will use the sensory room to make being in the ER easier for pediatric patients and their families.
“The environment in the sensory room is meant to help children feel more in control, comfortable and calm through self-regulating their nervous systems,” Danielle said.
The new sensory room uses various visual and touch tools and items to promote the calming environment.
“The ER can already be an overwhelming, overstimulating place for children,” Danielle said. “The sensory room is a way for them to find a sense of calm. Children are better able to process new information and their surroundings when they feel safe and relaxed in their environment.”
In addition to a dedicated pediatric ER, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South has a 12-bed pediatric inpatient unit with 12 private rooms and a 10-bed NICU.
St. Joseph’s Hospital-South opened as a 90-bed facility in 2015. Today, the hospital operates as a 223-bed facility. The hospital features all-private patient suites and also includes emergency care, surgical services, imaging, intensive care, obstetrics, cardiac catheterization and more in addition to pediatrics. The hospital is currently in the midst of $32.8 construction project expanding its pre-op and PACU (post anesthesia care unit) and adding a 20-bed observation unit.
The all-digital, state-of-the-art facility is located at 6901 Simmons Loop in Riverview. For more information, visit www.stjosephssouth.org.
