Children's Hospital is the third best children's hospital in the country, bringing in families from all over who have a child in need of specialized treatment. The newly expanded Ronald McDonald House can now help more of those families. At 177 rooms, the location across the street from the hospital is now the biggest in the world.
The Ronald McDonald House provides housing for families with children who need long or short-term treatment at the hospital. There, they can get the conveniences of home — hot meals, warm beds, laundry facilities — during their hospital stay.
But the waitlist to get into a room can be long, said Jennifer Loeb, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
"Part of the reason our house has such a long waiting list is because of the expertise at Cincinnati Children's," Loeb said. "They have some of the top doctors and surgeons in the world for some very specialty areas and departments."
For example, she said the hospital specializes in bone marrow transplants, NICU, colorectal and cardiac surgery.
"They have a lot of amazing specialists here and that brings families to us from across the United States and all around the world," she said.
The facility started with 20 rooms more than two decades ago and eventually grew to 48, then 78 rooms in 2009. Still, Loeb says they're nearly always at capacity.
So the organization raised $52 million, and construction began on a new seven-story building about two years ago. New families started using two floors of the facility about two weeks ago.
"It's been really fun — after being in the thick of construction and fundraising for two years — it's been amazing to see people come through the building for the first time and hear them react to it," she said.
The new building has a rooftop viewing area that overlooks Avondale and has an open feel to it.
"We hear a lot of comments about the big open windows and all the natural light that comes in, and that's really important for our families who are so emotionally and physically exhausted from supporting their kids in the hospital," Loeb said.
A virtual ribbon cutting happening Monday afternoon celebrates the opening of the building and a Thursday virtual event will reveal the interior space and host conversations with guest families.
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