Nine years ago, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities New York Metro (RMHC) to create one of the first embedded respite lounges in the country. RMHC designed the lounge to help families take a break from the clinical environment and decompress a little—without ever having to leave the hospital.
In August 2022 RMHC NY and their donor community have generously opened a second family lounge inside the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This is the second of two family rooms operated by RMHC NY Metro, and they are the only ones on Long Island.
The NICU is where some of Suffolk County’s smallest and sickest babies receive the expert care that they need. For many visitors, particularly parents, a NICU can feel like a very strange and stressful environment, so the new lounge has been specially designed to give families a homier feel and a quiet refuge, within the NICU department.
The NICU respite lounge creates a relaxed and homey environment, complete with wifi and TV.
Ronald McDonald House Charities New York Metro keep the kitchen fully stocked and make our families welcome.
A bathroom and laundry room are aavailable to help families spending so much their time in the NICU.
The new respite room includes a comfortable new lounge and kitchen area stocked with snacks and drinks, bathroom facilities with a shower, and fully stocked laundry room. It also gives parents the opportunity to meet other parents going through similar experiences, and to access support at a whole new level.
For babies in the NICU there may be a long recovery time, so many parents must return to work while their child is still in the hospital. The kitchenette, laundry and bathroom facilities are available 20 hours a day to suit the needs of our parents and families.
Dr Shanty Sridhar, Interim Chief of Neonatology and Medical Director, NICU
“However hard we work to help our families, having a baby in the NICU is one of the hardest experiences any parent can go through. The new lounge gives our families some quiet time to recharge their energies, but still stay close to their babies. We are so grateful to RMHC NY for making this happen.”
Matt Campo, CEO of Ronald McDonald House NY Metro
“We are thrilled to have this new resource available to families who are caring for a child that needs critical medical assistance. Our mission is to provide a strong, supportive, and caring environment by removing the burden of finding housing and basic human needs so that parents and caregivers can focus on what is most important, which is helping their child get better.”