The Emily Center, Phoenix Children's Hospital
Phoenix, Arizona
The Emily Center was established in 1986, as a consumer health library open to the public, through a generous donation from the Anderson family. The donation was made in honor of Emily Katherine Anderson who died after a three-year battle with a rare form of leukemia at age three. The Emily Center is located on the first floor of the outpatient specialty care center of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. The Center is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Information can be mailed to families if they are unable to get to the Center.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital will be expanding. The new, freestanding facility, was designed with kids in mind, the 22-acre campus will include inpatient and outpatient medical services. The Emily Center, which provides free pediatric health information to the public, will continue its unique mission in an even more family-centered environment. The Emily Center will be located along the main concourse of the new hospital, making it convenient to visitors as well as patient families. There is more than a mile of shelf space for the many books and videos that will be housed at the new center.
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| The Emily Center also has dedicated space for a children's library. |
The Collection and Services. The Emily Center houses information about child health and illness, and about support groups, agencies, and services within the community. Staff produce health education materials and conduct information searches. The library has over 4,000 books; 2,000 video and audiotapes; and thousands of current articles on specific health topics in English and Spanish. The center is building its collection to meet the needs of the culturally diverse groups in the surrounding communities it serves.
The Emily Center works collaboratively with the medical library both at Phoenix Children’s Hospital and at nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital. Additionally, the center maintains all its materials catalogued with the Phoenix Public Library, and participates in inter-library loan programs to increase consumer access to needed materials statewide.
The Emily Center also has dedicated space for a children’s library.
Funding. The Emily Center, has engaged in a number of innovative fundraising activities. As one example, the women’s fundraising auxiliary of the Emily Center has held an annual fashion show in conjunction with Esprit Fashions. In 1999, the tenth show was held, over 1,000 people attended the show, and $143,885 was raised for the Emily Center. Grants have been obtained to create the children’s corner (a renovation project), to support staff time and copying costs to develop customized research packets on health topics for families, and to cover staff time to collect trend data.
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| The Emily Center, has engaged in a number of innovative fundraising activities. As one example, the women's fundraising auxiliary of the Emily Center has held an annual fashion show in conjunction with Esprit Fashions. |
The Emily Center offers the opportunity for a personalized bookplate for a donation of $25.00. Both this opportunity and a wish list are advertised in the hospital’s publications
Staffing. The Emily Center is staffed by six part-time employees and numerous volunteers. The paid staff is headed by a director, employed 24 hours/week, who has a master’s degree in social work and is responsible for management, fundraising and marketing. Two nurses job-share a 1.2 full-time equivalent health information specialist position, which involves library and individualized research, while another nurse holds a part-time position as a health education specialist, providing patient and family education. A bachelor’s prepared health research assistant (16 hours/week), a secretary (32 hours/week), and a bilingual clerk (20 hours/week), complete the paid staff.
Advisory Committee. The Center has a Community Advisory Committee which meets monthly and has responsibilities in relation to fundraising, community outreach, and various operational matters. The committees’ 26 members include one of the founding parents, representatives from the hospital's Parent Advisory Council, a hospital physician, community health nurses, a member of Pilot Parents (a statewide parent to parent organization), parents who use the center, and other representatives of community groups and agencies.
Health Information Kiosk. One way to impart health information outside the walls of the resource center is to make health information kiosks available throughout the hospital and/or within hospital and outlying clinics. Health Information Kiosks are interactive touchscreen computer terminals that patients and families can access any time of day or night.
Patients and families at Phoenix Children’s Hospital can get child health and illness information as well as information about the hospital from the Resource Center’s three Health Information Kiosks. Two are located throughout the hospital and one is located in an off-site clinic. Contents of the kiosk include patient and family education handouts and contents from the book (and online guide), Do at Home or Call the Doc, published by the hospital. Information is available in English and Spanish. The kiosk in the off-site clinic also provides access to InfoTrac, a database of health information text and references.
The information from all three kiosks can be printed out. The contents of the kiosks are updated regularly. The kiosks have what is termed an automatic transaction journal that allows the Resource Center staff to see what sort of information is most requested. Staff can then decide what information should be added to the kiosk.
For further information, visit http://www.phxchildrens.com/about/services/emilycenter/