Exceptional Care for Children
Newark, Delaware
Residential Building 3rd Floor Renovation

ECC Mission Statement:

“Exceptional Care for Children improves the lives of technology-dependent children and their families through skilled nursing, transitional and palliative care. 

We are a haven for healing fragile bodies when improvement is possible and a refuge for nurturing vulnerable spirits when a cure is unattainable.”

Poltronieri Tang & Associates (PT&A) is currently providing planning, architectural, and interior design services to Exceptional Care for Children (ECC), a long-term nursing care facility for technology-dependent children located in Newark, DE.  In that effort, PT&A has embarked on the renovation design of ECC’s third floor resident unit.  Seven primary goals for the project were initially articulated by the ECC Planning Committee:

1. Reinforce the institutional mission of ECC

2. Address the changing needs of residents and their families

3. Support the nursing staff

4. Update clinical operations

5. Create a stimulating and interactive residential ambiance interspersed with zones of calm

6. Utilize green processes and products

7. Utilize an inclusive and transparent planning process

The project’s process and resulting design concepts have been developed to address the needs of the three most important users of the space:  The Children, their Families, and their Care Givers.

The Children

The initial project phase involved obtaining a thorough understanding of the children’s individualized needs in order to create a meaningful environment that is supportive of their health, development, and well being.  The wide range of children’s abilities and interests will be met through:

• Designing each private resident room to allow customized control of the amount of stimulation provided to the child based upon their changing needs, including lighting level, sound environment, temperature, air movement, etc.

• Providing a full range of sensory stimulation devices, including light levels ranging from complete darkness to a flood of natural spectrum lighting, salt water aquarium, “bubble columns”, array of colors and finishes, etc.

• Providing special stimulation for children on isolation protocols

• Providing medical gas outlets in public and common activity zones of the building to encourage children’s presence outside of resident rooms

• Allowing greater connections to outdoor spaces on the wooded ECC campus

The Families

The renovation will also concentrate on aspects related to the children’s family, including:

• Developing spaces to encourage family involvement, special events, and community outreach and education programs

• Providing a Family Resource area with computer, telephone, and educational materials, sibling play area, and group room for family dining, conferences, and meetings

• Developing a dedicated family zone within each resident bedroom to allow family members to stay overnight yet be out of the way of clinical staff activities, by providing couch, writing area, and rocking chairs

• Encourage children and their families to decorate their own rooms

The Care Givers

The design has been guided by the need to support nursing staff in all its activities, such as:

• Increasing visibility to patients and nurse call indicators

• Providing ease of access to patients, supplies, and medications

• Providing supplemental support during patient care activities, including cleaning, dressing, and feeding

• Developing a functional configuration and operational model which allows staff to maximize their time on direct nursing care activities

• Providing an enabling facility that helps attract and retain additional nursing staff

Key elements in this staff-focused approach include:

• Re-designing a centrally located nursing station which allows nursing staff direct visibility to an adjacent play area

• Completely renovating resident bathrooms accessibly designed with curb less showers and integrated patient lift technology

• Providing decentralized sub-nursing stations which allow staff to be in closer proximity to resident bedrooms

Project Design Process

The overall design process involved diverse activities, including:

• Extended observation of existing units

• Interviews and questionnaires with all key stakeholder

• Site visits to other pediatric and long-term care facilities

• Role-playing of resident experiences

• Comprehensive literature review, as well as design team reading of related books discussing possible children’s experiences, e.g. “Born on a Blue Day”, “Thinking in Pictures” ,“The Bell and the Butterfly”