At Ranken Jordan, children are often in the hospital for an extended time due to the nature of their diagnoses. This means the bridge to home is more complex. Our Care Coordination team is a valuable resource to make sure all aspects are covered during your child’s stay and to make the transition home easier.

Every family at Ranken Jordan is provided a social worker, a care coordinator and a patient and family engagement liaison to walk alongside you throughout your child’s care. We consider it your right to receive this important built-in support service.

We’re dedicated to helping you find the appropriate resources you need. We also identify barriers to discharge and how to navigate those. By giving parents the needed tools and resources, we help you become strong advocates for your child so you can adapt as your child’s needs change in the years ahead.

At Ranken Jordan, we understand that illness or injury doesn’t affect just the patient—it affects the whole family. Our team is here to support and guide you and your family every step of the way with an experienced, knowledgeable and compassionate social worker, care coordinator and patient and family engagement liaison.

A designated social worker is the key point of contact for the parents and caregivers to help navigate hospitalization and transitioning home. The social worker also connects families to resources both inside and outside the hospital and can answer questions about hospital guidelines and amenities.

As licensed professionals, Ranken Jordan social workers are knowledgeable about the constantly expanding resources available and how to access them. They have built strong relationships with outside agencies to make the care coordination seamless with safely transitioning to home. Other organizations in the community recognize and respect our expertise in caring for complex patients so they often turn to us as a trusted resource as well.

This vital point person will guide you through any unexpected issues and prepare you for long-term needs, as well as offer important emotional support.

Social workers also support and educate parents about self-care so you can build your strength to better care for your children. We encourage parents to rest and regroup while your child is being well cared for at Ranken Jordan.

Your care coordinator at Ranken Jordan is your clinical resource from the day your child arrives to the day they go home. To smooth the process for you, care coordinators manage insurance authorization, troubleshooting, treatment updates, discharge planning and more.

The care coordinator also helps you prepare for needs when you go home, including medical equipment and supplies, home health nursing, outpatient appointment coordination, and therapy coordination.

The patient and family engagement liaison focus on the whole family to make sure siblings and families receive the same compassionate care as our patients.

With formal education and training in child development, the patient and family engagement liaison provide patient and sibling education on a level they can understand.

We teach both parents and siblings ways to better cope with the stress of having a family member with an illness or injury. We strive to provide meaningful activities for caregivers and children. For example, we organize Family Fun Days, regular Caregiver Socials, and special sibling support groups all free of charge.

Our patient and family engagement liaison also help families feel connected to their child by coordinating video chats and email conversations.

Sometimes considered a lifeline for parents, our team also provides essential emotional support during stressful times.

The Ranken Jordan spiritual care department supports the spiritual needs of our patients, families, caregivers and staff. Chaplains are multifaith religious professionals specially trained to provide spiritual care for people of diverse faith backgrounds as well as people who do not identify as religious. A chaplain may be called upon for encouragement, deep listening, prayer, and to provide religious supplies, such as a Bible or a prayer rug. Chaplains may also help you stay connected to your faith community by coordinating spiritual care with your home clergy. If you are staying in the hospital over a holiday, chaplains offer religious services and other observations to mark the occasion. To speak with a chaplain, contact the spiritual care department at (314) 872-6550.

Our team listens to parents and sees the big picture to best support you and your family. As liaisons to other departments at Ranken Jordan, we bring the family’s voice to the larger team throughout the hospital to ensure all care is well coordinated and any concerns are addressed.

We encourage parents to ask physicians and therapists questions and will help you develop appropriate questions to ask your child’s care team. Our Care Coordination team ensures patients and families receive timely and accurate information to empower families and by helping them understand all their options.

Our goal is to make families as comfortable as possible and to build your confidence to handle the variety of situations you will likely encounter in the future. With the Care Coordination team as the link, all the teams across Ranken Jordan work closely together to make sure children and their families are well prepared to go home. We’re your ally for today and tomorrow.

To keep families connected and informed, Ranken Jordan offers a virtual care conferencing technology called Blue Jeans. This technology allows your child’s care team to periodically discuss your child’s treatment plan and progress with you virtually when you can’t attend meetings in person.

Ranken Jordan continues to evolve and add services to best meet our patient and family needs. Through our compassionate Care Coordination team, we’re committed to caring for the whole family to create a better quality of life for all.

We offer the following programs to caregivers, siblings, families and friends to help them cope with a family member’s stay at Ranken Jordan:

Caregiver Socials are offered every Monday from 1:00-2:00 p.m. in the hospital’s Dierberg’s kitchen. These meetings offer a time for respite with other caregivers at Ranken Jordan while patients participate in activities with Child Life and Recreation Therapy. Activities for caregivers focus on reflection, stress reduction, and coping skill activities such as scrapbooking, horticulture and art activities.

RJ SuperSibs provides those siblings with emotional support when a brother or sister is hospitalized due to injury or illness. Siblings ages 3-18 receive comfort, encouragement and positive attention through mailings, support groups and individual sessions. RJ SuperSibs’ goal is to help siblings feel recognized, remembered, included and empowered.  The Sibling Support Group for siblings ages 3-18 meets the first Tuesday of every month from 5:30-7 p.m.

PFAC’s purpose is to make recommendations to the Ranken Jordan health care team to enhance their ability to deliver the highest standard of safe, comprehensive and compassionate care. The council’s vision is to ensure every patient and family at Ranken Jordan has a positive experience to help them bridge to the next stage of healing.

On the second Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m., a guest speaker presents on topics that may be beneficial to our patients and families. Topics have included life after a brain injury, anxiety, mindful parenting and grief.

Once a month is Family Fun Day at Ranken Jordan, which encourages family togetherness through a variety of fun themes and activities. These activities have included a luau, Disney day and mad scientist day.

Each year, we offer special events to promote togetherness and make sure families don’t miss out on holiday fun. Holidays celebrated have included Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, National Siblings Day, Grandparents Day, Halloween and Christmas.

Several times throughout the year, we treat caregivers and siblings to a special catered meal at Ranken Jordan.