• General Information
  • Staying over
  • Child surgery
  • Layout of nursing wards
  • Care for chronically-ill children
  • Psychosocial care
  • Spiritual care
  • Pedagogical care
  • Quality of care
• Admission
  • Admission
  • Tips on preparing for admission
  • What should you bring for your child?
  • When your child is admitted
• Day treatment
  • Preparation
  • What should you bring?
  • Visit
• Outpatient Clinic

General Information

Sick children should be taken to a hospital with a high level of knowledge and experience in caring for sick children and their parents. The Juliana Children's Hospital site on Sportlaan is such a place, and fulfils a regional function in The Hague region.
Appropriately, the hospital is J-shaped, and many child-friendly elements feature in its construction and layout. There is the cheerful red entrance porch and the spacious main lobby, which has various playing facilities. Furthermore, the windows on the nursing ward are positioned in such a way that the children can easily look outside. The hospital's principle is to make the stay of children and their parents or caregivers as pleasant as possible.

Staying over

Parents and children form a unit for care in hospitals, and particularly in children's hospitals. Parents are therefore welcome to visit their children 24 hours a day. Children feel safe when they have their parents around them and when they need to be consoled, feel distressed, are in pain or want to joke around their parents should not be far away. All patient rooms therefore have permanent accommodation facilities for parents.
This means it is possible for one of the parents to stay with their child overnight. This is referred to as "rooming in". Parents staying for more than two days can make use of the Ronald McDonald House, which is located at the hospital's roof.

Child surgery

The surgical department of Juliana Children's Hospital is specially designed for the treatment of children and all members of the surgical team are qualified paediatricians. Staff's attitude and the general surroundings are intended to put children at ease. Cuddly toys and colourful drawings are just some of the attributes that make the surroundings child-friendly. Parents are allowed to be present when their children are brought under anaesthetic. Personal counselling and extensive information for parents are permanent fixtures of care offered by the hospital.

Layout of nursing wards

The spacious, light rooms are for one or two children while the two large rooms are for children that have undergone operations. All rooms have televisions. In the case of serious illness, all beds can be supervised through a monitor connected to an alarm system.
The play rooms are a favourite with all children. An exception are the teenagers, who have their own ward and private rooms, their own bathroom and, of course, television. The teen common room has comfortable hanging chairs, a television, stereo equipment and computers to go a small way to make up for being away from their familiar surroundings.

Care for chronically-ill children

Ever since the beginning of the eighties, the hospital has been dedicated to treat children with chronic illnesses in their own surroundings insofar as possible. A specially established team of nurses offer children and their parents care, counselling and instruction on how to keep chronically-ill children out of hospital. This 'transmural' or homecare approach has been very successful with children suffering from diabetes mellitus and cystic fibrosis.

The special treatment teams have strongly reduced the number of admissions. The hospital is further expanding this transmural care in collaboration with homecare organisations.

Psychosocial care

The close collaboration with the De Jutters Centre of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry allows Juliana Children's Hospital to offer quality psychosocial care. A team of social workers, psychologists and a child and adolescent psychiatrist supplement the medical care where necessary. The psychologists and social workers are present during patient consultations in the clinic and form part of the multidisciplinary transmural care teams for diabetes and cystic fibrosis patients.

Spiritual care

Being admitted to hospital is often a stressful experience, which can raise many questions with a child and certainly with those close to the child. These questions concern hope, expectation, disappointment, concern or fear. Young patients and those close to them often appreciate discussing these issues with a spiritual counsellor. All young patients and those close to them can, irrespective of their background, make an appeal to the staff of the Spiritual Guidance Service, which can then contact a minister, pastor, humanitarian counsellor, rabbi, pandit or imam.

Pedagogical care

As developing people, children are vulnerable. Now and again they require a little support to help them through difficult situations, such as a stay in hospital. The pedagogical care team can provide that support in various ways. The support varies for each child, although in all cases distraction offers the best way of relaxing.

Distraction through play is a basic facility of the children's hospital. The layout of the playroom encourages children to play together, and when playing, children can express their feelings about their experiences in the hospital. If children are unable to go to the playroom, a member of the pedagogical care team can go to their room to play with them.
Children are required to cope with a great deal of information in the hospital and the pedagogical team helps prepare children for examinations, anaesthetic or treatment. .

The pedagogical team is also there to help parents, because their children's behaviour can change as a result of their experiences in the hospital. This may cause behavioural problems and children sometimes project their anger or powerlessness onto their parents, refuse to take medicine or refuse to eat what they are given. The pedagogical team can give parents an insight into their child's behaviour, helping them to improve their relationship.

Staff's pedagogical attitude

To supplement the knowledge of diverse and often specific clinical pictures and care situations, the people who work at Juliana Children's Hospital are distinguished by their pedagogical attitude. This means they are aware of the areas for concern at the various stages of development and their approach is, thus, in harmony with the developmental stage of a child.
The daily care of children is based on the details provided by parents about the nature of the care provided at home. Routines in the home are continued in the hospital, insofar as possible. The staff also encourages parents' involvement in the care of their child, by offering rooming in and other services. They also provide counselling for parents attending examinations, treatments and anaesthesia induction.

Many festivities are organised at Juliana Children's Hospital, such as Christmas, Sinterklaas and the Cliniclowns visits. Headed by a coordinator, volunteers and the pedagogical care team strive to offer the young patients the necessary distractions. The Child Activity Centre cannot function without the financial support of its sponsors and the hospitals hopes the sponsors will continue to show their generosity in the coming years.

Quality of care

Juliana Children's Hospital is renowned for being child-friendly. Modern equipment helps doctors and nurses perform their daily work, but care is primarily the work of people: for people, by people. Love of the job and an affinity with caring for children are important, but not enough - it's about expertise and competence. All professionals, including workers in the laboratories and radiography department, are trained in how to deal with children. In addition to patients and their parents, the quality of service is monitored by various committees. Their advice is valuable and it is acted upon. If the care on offer does not meet the required standards, patients and parents can lodge a complaint with the patients' contact person and/or the complaints committee. Complaints are carefully dealt with according to a fixed protocol. Measures are taken on the basis of children's and their parents' perception of quality. The hospital regularly distributes survey forms to assess the level of quality offered.

Admission

When you and your child come to the hospital, you have to register with the Admissions Office. Please bring your insurance details and an address and telephone number where you can be reached.
You and your child are then taken from the Admissions Office to one of the nursing wards. Here, the procedures for that ward are explained. You are issued with a leaflet about these procedures. Your child is given a wristband with his or her name on it. It is important that you stay with your child on the day of admission, as this will make it easier for him or her to get used to their new surroundings.

Tips on preparing for admission

Being admitted to hospital is a stressful experience for which children have to be prepared. With younger children, this can be done through a step-by-step explanation of what is going to happen to them in hospital. You can also help your child prepare through games and books about going to hospital and being sick. The Patient Information Office in the main lobby also has booklets you can borrow explaining how to prepare for admission to hospital.

Older children also need to be explained why they are being admitted, and what they can expect to happen. As well as the pleasant aspects, such as the fact that their mother or father will be there, less pleasant aspects should also be discussed, such as injections, or examinations that may be painful. Be honest when you're answering your child's questions. Plan in advance whether you will stay in the hospital (rooming in) or, alternatively, in the Ronald McDonald House. The Admissions Office staff will tell you about these possibilities and provide you with written information in this respect. It is important that your child knows this in advance. It is perfectly understandable that being admitted to hospital is not only difficult for your child, but also for you as parents.

What should you bring for your child?

• toiletries
• normal clothing
• pyjamas
• dressing gown and slippers
• medicines if your child uses them (please keep them in the original package)
• a favourite plaything or cuddly toy
• dummy and bottle or cup
• If your child needs special food, please take this with you for the first day in hospital or let us know in advance.

When your child is admitted

When you to say goodbye, keep it short. Ensure that your child is not left alone when you leave: ask a nurse or a pedagogical staff member to stay with your child. Ensure your child is confident that you will return by leaving something personal behind, such as a photo. Children may suffer from homesickness and loneliness, which they sometimes express through anger or sadness. This is a normal reaction. You can help your child get used to the new situation by regular visits.

Day treatment

Day treatment means that your child visits to the hospital for treatment on the appointed day, and can then return home on the same day.

Preparation

Before being anaesthetised, children are subject to a preliminary examination by a paediatrician.
After visiting the outpatient clinic, the doctor will give you a white envelope containing a questionnaire. The completed questionnaire should be brought with you when you and your child come for the preliminary examination.
The Admissions Office will contact you by telephone or in writing about the date for the preliminary examination and the operation. The preliminary examination is usually conducted one to two weeks before the operation. Your child is weighed and measured and is then subject to a general physical examination.
The paediatrician will also discuss the questionnaire with you. Blood analysis may also be performed at the laboratory.
The results of the examination are good if you do not hear from us within two days.

If the time of admission is unclear, please call the Admissions Office on +31 (0)70 210 7368 between 2 and 3 p.m. You can reach them on the weekday before your child is to be admitted.

What should you bring?

Please dress your child in comfortable clothing that can easily be washed and taken on and off. No tights are permitted. If your child has long hair, please tie it in a ponytail or a plait. No jewellery or nail varnish is permitted and contact lenses must be removed before the operation or procedure.

Visit

To ensure your child and the other children have sufficient rest, no more than two adults may accompany the child to the day treatment ward. Brothers and sisters are not permitted in the ward.

Outpatient Clinic

Over 13,000 children visit the outpatient clinic of the Juliana Children's Hospital every year. Acute outpatient services are also available for emergency situations. Your general practitioner can call a paediatrician to the clinic to examine children within 48 hours or quicker, if necessary.
The following specialists are available in the outpatient clinic: paediatricians, surgeons, orthopaedists, ear, nose and throat doctors, plastic surgeons, dermatologists, rheumatologists, cardiologists and urologists.

There are multidisciplinary consultations for children with BPD, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, Down's syndrome, clefts and obesity. The transmural care service is also a part of the outpatient clinic.

Please call the Appointments Office on weekdays on +31 (0)70 210 7300 to make an appointment.
Please call +31 (0)70 210 0000 to make an appointment with one of the doctors.

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