UAMS, Ronald McDonald Charities of Arkansas to create new family space near NICU

Parents of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will have a new option for being near their newborns on the UAMS campus.

UAMS and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas (RMHCA) announced the creation of the Ronald McDonald Family Room, a partnership between the hospital and the charity. It will occupy 2,000-square-feet on the fifth floor of UAMS Medical Center and will feature up to four overnight rooms for parents and siblings of patients in the UAMS NICU and a common area for day use by up to 64 NICU families. UAMS’ neonatal unit has 58 patient rooms and can serve up to 64 patients at a time.

This will be the first Ronald McDonald Family Room in central Arkansas. It will include a kitchen, dining and family area, and laundry and provide a quiet space so parents can be in the best position to make vital decisions for their baby, UAMS said.

Construction will begin this summer and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. RMHCA will also provide staff to work with families staying overnight.

“We want to bring our commitment and expertise to the heart of where it is needed most, the NICU,” says RMHCA Board Chair Diana Smithson. “As a founder of the first Ronald McDonald House once said, ‘A family with a sick child is a sick family.’ In partnership with UAMS, our new Family Room will take care of the needs of the whole family.”

Studies show that family involvement in patient care in the NICU reduces parental stress, anxiety and depression; improves maternal-infant bonding and breastfeeding; and eases the transition to care at home after discharge from the hospital, according to UAMS.

“We designed our neonatal floor with families in mind, and over the past 10 years we have seen how babies and their parents benefit from spending time together in the first weeks of life. This partnership with Ronald McDonald House brings an opportunity for siblings to stay overnight with their parents for the first time,” said Richard H. Turnage, M.D., senior vice chancellor for clinical programs and chief executive officer of UAMS Medical Center.

“We are delighted to partner with UAMS to create a Ronald McDonald Family Room just steps from the NICU,” said Janell Mason, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas. “Our five-story Ronald McDonald House served more than 1,200 families last year from UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and Baptist Health Medical Center. Creating this new program at UAMS will enable more families to stay together with their other children, experience the comforts of home, enjoy a good night’s rest, and allow them to better focus on the care of their infant. We couldn’t be more excited.”

​Funding of the Ronald McDonald Family Room is currently at $597,000 thanks to Windgate Charitable Foundation, Clark Family Foundation, Inc., local McDonald’s owners, The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, and RMHC Global. The total project cost, including the first three years of operating support is $910,000.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas is a locally funded and operated non-profit 501(c)3 organization.