$155 Million Renovation At Children's Hospital With Focus On Minimizing Patient Stress

DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit's Children's Hospital Wednesday took the wraps off a $155 million hospital renovation.

Hospital CEO Luanne Thomas Ewald says waiting in the Emergency Department is now a thing of the past.

"They come in -- they get triaged and they go immediately into a room," she says. "So we don't have waiting rooms in the Emergency Department anymore."

In the Intensive Care for Children and Infants, private rooms have been added with a fold-out sleeper couch so that both parents can stay over.

"That private space is extremely important - going through a lot of stress and the families are going through stress -- so for them to be able to have private time and private space -- it makes all the difference," says Ewald.

Cancer survivor Eliah Englebrandt, 11, says it's a big improvement.

"You could only have one parent staying in the room and you had to really, really ask to have a chair brought in so you could have another person sleeping in the room -- and it was just really irritating."

Twelve-year-old heart patient Neiyland Arnold likes the new look.

"It's very nice here, I like the space, the bright colors -- it's very joyful and it makes you comfortable being here," says Arnold.

The hospital now also has a lounge on each floor, with workspace, phone chargers and a shower, for parents of children in the hospital.