Children's hospitals require specialized programming, support services, staff and facilities to accommodate the needs of children. Three areas where children's hospital facilities are different than their adult counterparts:
- Families are at the center of care efforts. Beyond the logistics and legal stewardship that families manage, pediatric patients need their family around them, and this requires more family-centered spaces across all patient care areas.
- Children are in varying phases of their emotional and intellectual development. These developmental and social needs drive additional levels of specialization and programming in social, clinical and physical domains.
- Pediatric care requires different materials and specialized technology. The range in the physical size of kids requires a variety of equipment and materials to accommodate them, including customized information technology to fit pediatric needs.
