Celebrity Buzz and Movie Magic at a Children’s Hospital

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Adrian RubinAs an actor whose body of work spans over three decades, Johnny Depp is known for many things. Depp’s work on the classic horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and his bit on the much loved show, 21 Jump Street would spawn an impressive career that landed Depp leading roles in perennial favorites like Edward Scissorhands, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Benny and Joon. Moving performances in these offbeat crowd pleasers would eventually lead Depp to a memorable role in the blockbuster hits from the Pirates of the Caribbean Series. While Depp has established himself over the years as a top notch actor he is most recently making headlines for something else.

Depp is currently busy filming the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series in Australia, but took some time off of the set in order to meet some ill children at Lady Cliento Children’s Hospital.

Dressed in full Captain Jack Sparrow attire, Johnny Depp made the rounds meeting with children currently staying in the hospital. He talked with the kids and was found happily posing for pictures with the patients. One child’s mom noted that, “It was really beautiful. Everyone kept on trying to move him on, but he kept on coming back” to be with the kids.

Depp’s surprise visit to this children’s hospital is a heartwarming story when you imagining the delight that these unexpecting ill children must have felt. What is equally impressive, however, is Depp’s continued commitment to a number of causes. A quick look into the topic reveals that while Depp’s philanthropic efforts are expansive, his commitment to aiding ill children is clearly established. To all of those who give of their time, energy and resources to aiding others, we must say thank you. And hopefully this sort of high-profile volunteer work will inspire others.

Anna Herr Clise – Children’s Champion of the Pacific Northwest

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Adrian RubinSince 1907, the Seattle Children’s Hospital has served under the mission: to prevent, treat and eliminate pediatric disease. The hospital is known for its capacity to address the specific emotional, physical and developmental necessities of children as they grow from infancy to young adulthood.

The hospital deploys the cooperation of physicians spanning almost 60 subspecialties under the umbrella of pediatrics. Therefore it’s no surprise that the Seattle Children’s Hospital offers a host of services including both inpatient and outpatient services as well as surgical, rehabilitative, behavioral, emergency, and outreach services. While the breadth of services offered is unique unto itself, the hospital provides these services whether or not a family is capable of paying. The unique mission of the Seattle Children’s Hospital originates from the hospital’s founder, Anna Herr Clise.

Born in Wisconsin and re-settled in Seattle with her husband and young infant in 1889, Anna Herr Clise joined the Seattle community under the urging of her husband James’ sister.

Adrian RubinWith a background in real-estate, James Clise became a prominent real-estate mogul in the Seattle area. By 1898, the Clises were doing quite well for themselves financially and the family had grown to include two more children, but in that same year tragedy struck and the youngest Clise, Willis died from an untreatable illness.

When Willis died, the nearest children’s hospital was located in San Francisco; but, the best treatment options for children were in Philadelphia.

Nearly a decade later, Anna and James Clise accompanied their daughter on a trip east to a finishing school in Philadelphia. On this trip, Anna and James met with various contacts at local children’s treatment facilities.

This trip, coupled with reflections on her son’s death inspired Anna to create a facility that treats ill children in Seattle.

Upon returning to Seattle, Anna got right to work, and gathered a group of local society women to  create an association that would fund surgical treatments for children with orthopedic disorders. This association would ensure care regardless of a patient’s religion, race or gender.

The founding members paid an annual membership fee of $10 and an extra $10 to fund the association’s treasury. In considering the city’s poor, these women also decided that children whose families are unable to pay should also receive the care they need and decided that financial support for the hospital needed to come from the local community.

Anna Clise would soon after file articles of incorporation for the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital Association, help raise $50,000 to build a hospital, and enlist the pro-bono services of 12 doctors. From there the hospital blossomed and is still a revered institution for treating children with various maladies to this day.

 

UVA Children’s Hospital Wins Environmental Award

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Adrian Rubin Battle BuildingOne of the newest buildings from the University of Virginia Health System was recently awarded a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. What is this building you ask? The Battle Building, UVA’S Outpatient Surgery Center and care center for UVA’s Children’s Hospital. The building was honored with this award for its eco-friendly design. The building construction used 80% of its materials derived from landfills, and also incorporates eco-friendly elements for stormwater runoff with green gardens, water conservation, and housekeeping products. One of the buildings main goal was to limit water use. There is no drinkable water that is used for landscaping, and the developers opted to use a low-flow plumbing fixture, which reduces water consumption by over 40%

The building is big on keeping the air quality inside the edifice at a pristine level. The building has a green housekeeping program, where housekeepers learn to how to clean using eco-friendly cleaning products along with best cleaning practices for the environment.

The list doesn’t stop there though. The building also contains energy efficient lighting and air handling systems. They’ve incorporated a bridged lobby for the use of using daylight as their main source of light throughout the day, and an abundance of windows and glass to cut down on the lighting. The lighting they do use are lower-density, which uses less energy. They have also implemented occupancy sensors, so when there is nobody in the room, the lights turn off. The building has been able to cut their energy cost by 18%.

2015-2016 Children’s Hospital Rankings

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The US News and World Report released the 9th annual rankings of pediatric hospitals in the United States this week. 83 hospitals made the list this year, and the top 12 children’s hospitals earned a spot on the honor roll. There were 10 metrics in which the hospitals were ranked: heart surgery, cancer, gastroenterology, diabetes, neonatology, urology, pulmonology, neurology, nephrology, and orthopedics. The hospitals that made it in the top 10 obtained high scores in at least three of these ranking factors.

The top 12 come from Health News & World Report

Andrew Rubin Children's Hospital

 

 

Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center were the only hospitals to score a 10 out of 10 on their specialties. Last year, there were 89 hospitals that ranked for at least one specialty, and this year, that number decreased to 83.

 

The rankings were developed from a long clinical survey that was sent to selected hospitals considered for children’s hospital rankings. The research consulting firm, RTI International was responsible for implementing the survey and analyzing the results. There were approximately 184 pediatric centers that took the survey. Most of the hospitals that conducted the survey were Members of the Children’s Hospital Association. From the 184 hospitals that were sent the survey, 109 actually entered enough information to be considered for ranking under one specialty.

Children’s Hospital Performance Index:

The hospitals performance was ranked in three areas:

  1. Clinical outcomes – or survival rates of various infections and diseases.
  2. Efficiency and coordination – which takes into account reputation, compliance, and processes.
  3. Resources – such as adequate staffing and proper disease control programs.