Tour Kentucky Children's Hospital:
A Place of Comfort and Healing

Kentucky Children's Hospital is located within UK Hospital on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, Kentucky.

From the hospital parking structure, enter the Kentucky Children's Hospital on the first floor. We created a separate entrance to ease families' introduction into the health care setting. From this entrance, follow the signs to take the elevator to the fourth floor to the Children's Hospital.

The Children's Hospital is a hospital within a hospital, which means that we share many of UK Hospital's services and facilities. However, our Management Council makes policies and decisions which focus on the needs of children and families. Kentucky Children's Hospital is the only children's hospital in the region. Our patients range in age from infants through adolescents and have a variety of illness and injuries. Kentucky Children's Hospital is able to treat the most critically ill children, as well as those with less severe illness or injury.

We also have pediatric specialists for every system of the body, and these specialists only work with children.

At the entrance is the first of three Welcome Centers. The Welcome Centers are here to assist families in admissions, finding their way, and answering their questions. The staff and volunteers at the Welcome Centers are invaluable sources of information and assistance. If the receptionists do not know the answer to your question, they will find it.

As you enter the Children's Hospital, you will notice bright colors and unique original artwork which captures the attention of young and old. This rainforest sculpture was donated to the hospital.

Our kinetic sculpture, balls falling through a maze of animals, creates interesting sounds. The Hospital Auxiliary gave this sculpture to Kentucky Children's Hospital in 1997.

This is the Welcome Center for the Acute Care Center. It is the hub of communication. Note that the counter tops are at different levels, so that children can see (and be seen by) the people behind the desk. The lines in the architecture are not straight, but curved to be more interesting and less institutional. The design creates the image of clouds and shadows throughout the hospital.

These are the Acute Care Units. Two respiratory isolation rooms are on each unit.

In each corner, there is a "tree" where you can see the shadow from the branches on the ground. Above the branches are the "stars," which shine in the evenings. Surrounding each tree and down the hall are the patient rooms. Over each door are shapes in different patterns, so that children can identify their rooms.

Each room features a bed with a remote that controls the television, reading lights, and the nurse call system. The beds are changed according to the needs of the child. Each room has a cot so that a parent may stay with each child. A full bathroom (toilet, sink, and shower) is in each room. There is a writing desk for parents, over-the-bed tables, and medicine carts for each patient. These amenities are provided because the room becomes the family's home away from home while the child is in the hospital.

Each Acute Care Unit has a Communication Center. It is here that doctors' orders are faxed to the pharmacy or other services that assist in providing care. This is the West Wing Communication Center, which was designed with older children and adolescents in mind. This also is the area where children undergoing chemotherapy are admitted. Many children in the hospital wear their own clothes, which makes them feel more comfortable.

The Multimedia Room has computers, video games, and the closed circuit television system. With the closed circuit television system, we can show entertainment and educational videos, broadcast live entertainment from the Treehouse Playroom, and play TV Bingo.