Features
Safety Features
Preventing errors and maintaining the highest patient safety standards remain some of the guiding principles of Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health North Hospital. New safety measures have been implemented at IU Health North Hospital to ensure that your child is safe.
Bar Code Scanning of Medications
Medications ordered by a patient’s physician are entered into a centralized computer system. Before nurses dispense a pill, vial or syringe, they scan employee, patient and medication identification codes. The bar code technology alerts care givers if there are any discrepancies such as wrong dose or time.
Prompts & Alerts
A number of various prompts and alerts are part of the system as well, including the following: allergy alerts, drug-to-drug interactions, drug-to-food interactions, follow-up reminders and educational information about diseases and treatments. These alerts pop up as the nurse or other caregiver is administering medication and scanning bar codes into the system.
Infant Security
All areas of IU Health North Hospital that care for children utilize an infant and child abduction alarm. This means one less worry that parents will have during what can be a stressful time.
Single Patient Chart
Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health North is moving to electronic patient charting in order to create a single patient chart, instead of paper copies for each clinician or caregiver. Electronic charting done at IU Health North Hospital and physician offices located at IU Health North Hospital are also accessible to clinicians across the IU Health system. The patient’s privacy is still protected, as access to patient medical records is only granted to those at the appropriate levels.
Additional Features for Patients & Families
CarePages
CarePages are free, personal, private Web pages that help family and friends communicate when someone is receiving care. You can set up your own personal page documenting the birth and growth of your child or providing updates when there are serious illnesses. This allows patients and families to stay connected to their friends and loved ones at times that are convenient. Only those people you give the address to can view your CarePage and it will remain active for up to 18 years.
Child Life
The Child Life Department works with the psychosocial and emotional needs of the children in the hospital. Our Child Life Specialists seek to minimize the stress and anxiety of a patient and his or her family during hospitalization, promote normal growth and development and provide emotional support.
Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health North has two activity rooms, a toddler/school room and a teen room. Each of these provides a safe place for the patients to “get away.” The activity room offers play which can allow freedom of choice, normalization, socialization, diversion and a chance to have fun. The teen activity room offers a variety of board games, computers for Internet use, a juke box and an arcade game. Each activity area is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Internships
If you are a student interested in an internship with IU Health North Hospital's child life department, please download an application, and mail to the address on the application. Thank you for your interest.
Pediatric Pre-Admission Tours
Having a surgery or procedure can be a challenging experience for you and your family - especially children. In an effort to reduce this anxiety, Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health North offers pre-admission tours to help you and your family prepare.
The tours are conducted by a pediatric registered nurse or Child Life specialist. The tours help ease the fears of the child and parents, by making them familiar with areas of the hospital that the child will spend time in, and by explaining the steps of the surgical procedure or hospitalization.
Your child will have an interactive experience with the facilities, equipment and personnel, in a positive, supported atmosphere. All family members are encouraged to attend. Pre-admission tours are given weekly, and are free of charge to patients and families. The tour will last 30 – 60 minutes. To schedule, please call 317.688.2419.
Private Patient Rooms & Other Family Accommodations
All patient rooms at IU Health North Hospital are private, including the 10 pediatric inpatient rooms, 6 pediatric intensive care (PICU) rooms and 23 neonatal intensive care (NICU) rooms. Comfortable family lounges and family sleep suites are available on the pediatric floor for families of young children needing to have some quiet time or time to spend with their children.