Our Family Room

While on vacation in Salt Lake, Alicia Christensen was life-flighted to University of Utah Hospital to deliver her baby at 28 weeks. For the next 52 days, her baby was cared for in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and Alicia found herself craving some space where she could be near her baby but also take a moment to be alone and process the situation—which had taken her and her family by surprise.

Like Alicia, many of the families with babies in the University of Utah Health NICU never imagined their newborn would be unable to leave the hospital without significant care. To make it easier for NICU families to stay close to their babies, U of U Health partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of the Intermountain Area to open the Newborn Intensive Care Ronald McDonald Family Room at University of Utah Hospital in December 2021.

The Ronald McDonald Family Room serves as a welcoming space that allows NICU families to be comfortable while staying close to their babies. This wonderful space was made possible as a result of generous lead gifts provided by W. Hughes Brockbank Foundation, The Kahlert Foundation, George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, The Mark and Kathie Miller Foundation, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, Khosrow B. and Ghazaleh Semnani, and Goldman Sachs. Additional gifts were provided by The Katherine W. and Ezekiel R. Dumke, Jr. Foundation; Jack D. and Grace F. Madson Foundation; and an anonymous donor.

Although the Family Room wasn’t yet offered when Alicia’s baby was in the NICU, Alicia is grateful that women after her will have a different experience.

“I think about all of the moms who won’t have to pump in their cars, they’ll be able to pump in a private room; I think about the moms who’ll have a space to just sit alone and cry when they need to; I think about the roller coaster of emotions being in the NICU, and I love that the Family Room is a space where parents can come to process those emotions,” Alicia says.

With 55 beds, the University Hospital’s NICU is one of the region’s largest, serving as a care hub for families throughout the Mountain West. Parents with newborns in the NICU are often far from home, straining their work schedules and finances.

The Ronald McDonald Family Room offers onsite respite, lodging, food, and compassionate family-centered care with a private room and dedicated breast pumping area, laundry facilities, private showers, a fully stocked kitchen with grab-and-go-items, three private sleep rooms for overnight stays and naps, a computer bar, and guest lockers. The space is hosted by RMHC staff and volunteers.

U of U Health’s expanded partnership with RMHC is a long-anticipated and much-needed project. An estimated 1,500 NICU families are expected to be served annually in the family room. “We have partnered with U of U Health since we were founded in 1988, as our Ronald McDonald House in Salt Lake City hosts families traveling to access world-class neonatal and pediatric care at the U of U Hospitals, including the University of Utah Health Burn Center, HMHI, John A. Moran Eye Center, and, most often, the U of U NICU,” says Carrie Romano, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Intermountain Area. “We know there are meaningful benefits for babies to have physical contact with their mothers and fathers and we know that family-centered care improves patient outcomes. That’s why this program will have a lasting and meaningful impact.”