The Cherese Mari Laulhere Children’s Village at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, celebrated a major milestone – its one year anniversary on Feb. 22. The Children’s Village was built so children with complex chronic conditions and their families don’t have to travel all around town to various specialty medical offices to receive care.

In the last year, the Children’s Village has served tens of thousands of patients. The clinics had 45,999 visits, the rehab department had 13,177 visits, the imaging department had 5,553 visits, and the laboratory had 4,799 visits.

The Children’s Village has more than 30 different types of specialty physicians and various medical services, including a pharmacy and blood draw lab. They are all centralized within the one building, which creates a more convenient and efficient healthcare experience for children and families around the region. Construction on the 80,000 sq. ft., four-story building started in the Summer of 2019.

“We are excited to commemorate the Cherese Mari Laulhere Children’s Village’s first year of operation,” says Graham Tse, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s. “I believe I can say on behalf of the staff and physicians of MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s that we are proud to have supported so many children and families within this one year of opening the Village, and we will continue our pediatric work in the years to come.”

Each year, 65,000 children are assisted in MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s outpatient specialty centers across the region. Yearly, 10,000 children have visited a Child Life Specialist in outpatient clinics, 1,400 families have used the Family Resource Center, and 580 families have participated in classes and support groups in the Education Center within the family support services offered by MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s. The Children’s Village anticipates that, in the next four years, the number of children they will be assisting will increase by 20%, as well as doubling the number of families they will help with their family support services.

The core heart of the Children’s Village lies within the extremely talented and caring Child Life Specialists who are dedicated to making the health care experience more positive and help ease anxieties that come with medical tests and procedures. Each Child Life Specialist is an expert in child development and is trained in medical play to minimize children’s stress and promote optimal responses to medical treatment and care.

The Children’s Village’s one year anniversary also marks the beginning of a dream come true.

MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s has long dreamed of a place where families could receive all their care in one place, and now the Children’s Village continues to provide centralized care for families around the region.