Design and features - The new Royal Children's Hospital

Purpose built for kids and their families

• A range of interactive playgrounds.
• A real 2-storey coral reef aquarium.
• A Scienceworks 'wonders of science' display will include over 20 'hands-on, body-in' experiences plus space for two large exhibits.
• A partnership with Melbourne Zoo will provide onsite education and interaction with animals.
• There will be a healthy food kitchen and garden, to teach kids about healthy food choices and it will have therapeutic benefits too.
• A 'bean-bag theatre', showing the latest movies.
• A bigger and better Starlight Room.
• A state-of-the-art entertainment system will be included at each patient bed.

• An emphasis on family-centred care.
• Eighty five percent of all rooms in the new RCH will be single bed rooms, providing privacy for patients and their families without compromising staff visibility.
• Each patient room will include three zones - clinical, patient and parent. The patient zone will be a ‘safe haven’ for sick kids and will include a state-of-the-art entertainment system. Rooms will be designed to feel more like home, there will be a place to put personal belongings and private ensuites too. The parent zone will include a window seat, which will pull-out into a bed, storage and internet access. Kids and parents will also have control over lighting. Things like medical equipment and the write-up bay will be located within the clinical zone.
• Each ward will include two specially designed treatment rooms, to enable treatment to occur outside the patient’s bedroom. This will assist kids to identify their bedrooms as a ‘safe haven’.
• Play areas in each ward.
• Child-friendly scale for windows, furniture and handrails. Reception desks will include low-rise sections to allow kids to see what’s going on.
• Waiting areas will include interactive distractions, and medical equipment will be dwarfed and disguised with large scale themes and colour wherever possible.

• Retreat, gathering areas and outdoor balconies on each ward will place an emphasis on play and will help kids and their families form social connections.
• Breast-feeding and baby change rooms.
• A bigger and better Family Resource Centre to support the families of sick children with private cubicles, bathroom facilities, laundry, lounge, meals area, kitchen, personal care suite and an external courtyard.
• The new RCH will include a small supermarket and a gymnasium as well as a range of healthy food options for families, staff and visitors.
• A multi-faith centre and two child care centres.
• A 90 room 3.5-star hotel, providing an option for extended families to stay within close distance to a sick child.
• Bereavement spaces.
• Emergency overnight accommodation will be provided and Ronald McDonald House will continue to provide a home-away-from-home for seriously sick kids and their families.

• Outpatient services will be easy for families to find at the new RCH. All consulting clinics, diagnostic services like pathology, and associated support services, like physiotherapy, will be within close proximity to each other.
• Interactive play areas will help keep patients and siblings occupied.