Providence Foundations

Providence St. Vincent Medical Center Partners With Nonprofit to Offer Drop-in Child Care

Published: Jan. 29, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. – Providence St. Vincent Medical Center patients and visitors who have young children will notice something different in the new year: drop-in child care.

Portland nonprofit My Little Waiting Room is working with Providence to provide the service. My Little Waiting Room is a project conceived by two local moms following one mother’s personal experience battling breast cancer. Amy Paterson has a son who was a toddler during the same year she faced 144 medical appointments. That meant finding and arranging child care 144 times before Amy could get well.

“We believe that since retail stores, gyms and movie theaters offer drop-in child care, so should hospitals, where families are often in crisis and could use it the most,” said Paterson, who co-founded My Little Waiting Room with Melissa Moore. “We are thrilled that Providence St. Vincent Medical Center has the vision to make this a reality.”

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health states women caregivers are 50 percent more likely than other women to report difficulties getting needed medical care and twice as likely to forego care altogether. A survey of 200 respondents conducted by My Little Waiting Room shows:

• 90 percent of parents say arranging child care to attend medical appointments is sometimes or always a challenge.
• 75 percent of parents say they or a family member has missed or rescheduled one or more medical appointments due to lack of child care.
• The majority of parent respondents said they would use drop-in childcare at a hospital.

Licensed and trained child care professionals will staff the daycare center, which is scheduled to open in March.

“We always are looking for ways we can help our patients,” said Alex Jackson, Providence St. Vincent’s associate administrator. “My Little Waiting Room is sure to ease the way for parents who do not have easy access to child care.”

My Little Waiting Room will be offered to patients free of charge, with a suggested donation to help defray some of the service’s costs. It is supported by funds raised through Providence St. Vincent Medical Foundation. So far, it also has received grants from Bright Starts and its Kids II Foundation, Providence Health System Federal Credit Union, the Portland Rotary Charitable Trust, and the Jurrens Family Foundation. To make a donation to the My Little Waiting Room fund at Providence St. Vincent Medical Foundation, visit: . For more information, visit www.mylittlewaitingroom.org.