Improving Your Child's Imaging Experience

Health procedures happening inside a hospital often create stress for children. That anxiety makes the imaging process more difficult for both the child and the medical professionals performing the test.

Child-Friendly Imaging Experience Nearby

For the accurate diagnosis that leads to effective treatment of your child’s health condition, you want the best and most comfortable imaging experience possible, supported by top-quality facilities, equipment, services and healthcare professionals, with everything nearby.

That’s why you want your child’s imaging tests to take place at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City – Oklahoma’s first hospital using advanced technology to calm children’s fears during radiology procedures.

Improved Procedure Experience

At Oklahoma Children’s Hospital’s groundbreaking radiology suite with special multisensory equipment, your anxious child gains more control of the surroundings while undergoing pre-operative procedures and imaging processes. That greater sense of self-control helps your child relax, which, in turn, improves procedures and test results, as well as possible outcomes. The Children’s Hospital’s Child Life specialists, always on hand, understand how to connect with your child and help soothe fears related to imaging activities.

Ambient Experience Fluoroscopy Suite

Imagine your child traveling around the world while undergoing a fluoroscopy procedure. That’s a reality within the imaging and radiology area at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital. In fact, the Philips Healthcare Ambient Experience interactive technology suite, first of its kind in the nation, allows your child an escape into the environment of their choice during the imaging process.

Looking forward to a jungle adventure? Ready for a trip to Europe? Your child holds the controls to the comforting place they want to go. Through integrated architecture, design and lighting, the touch of a button instantly changes the total room color or transforms the imaging suite into an animated sea adventure, a trip to Australia or other enjoyable space. When children can make choices, they feel more in control, which reduces their anxiety. During procedures, children focus on and interact with images on the walls of the imaging suite, which distracts their attention from the radiology procedure.

Vecta Multisensory Environment

In the typical imaging exam rooms at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, children can find helpful distractions by watching colored bubbles rise up a long water column or dance in designs projected on a wall. Powered by Vecta, a portable interactive device wheeled from room to room, the multisensory environment helps divert a child’s attention from medical matters and reduce fears.

Oklahoma Children’s Hospital’s Child Life specialists, the healthcare professionals who serve as your liaison to doctors and other medical staff, recognize that even simple tasks, such as a nurse checking vital signs, can cause anxiety in a child. That’s why these specialists use the multisensory environment to help children relax and engage in an activity that contributes to positive coping.

Also used during pre-operative outpatient procedures and in operating rooms at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, the Vecta system diverts attention as older infants and toddlers receive anesthesia and helps calm children with special needs such as autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. The brain’s reaction to distraction techniques leads to less pain and decreased anxiety, which reduces the need for medication in children.