While we love seeing our patients thrive at Ranken Jordan, we are always overjoyed when they are ready to leave the hospital and go home with their families. It is a key part of our unique care model, Care Beyond the Bedside: children thrive when they’re with the people they love so our goal is to get kids home as soon as possible.
However, our kids are medically complex, so they typically can’t just walk out the door with their families and launch into a “normal” routine. Complex medical patients often require round-the-clock care and they often have equipment like trachs and ventilators that require special training and care.
We offer a lot of caregiver training for our families but we are always looking for ways to solve more of their unmet needs.
That’s why we created our new Simulated Home Environment (Sim Home for short). Located on the second floor of our hospital, the private room gives families a space to apply everything they learned in their caregiver training in a more homelike setting.
To the best of our knowledge, our Sim Home is the only one in the state of Missouri and one of only a few in the country.
Why we created ‘Sim Home’
One of the inspirations behind Sim Home was a visit a group of us made earlier this year to Bethany Children’s Health Center in Bethany, Oklahoma.
The hospital had a mocked up house on their campus to show how a home could be best adapted for medically complex kids. The house sparked an idea for us to create a similar home environment at Ranken Jordan, a place where families could stay overnight and “practice” life with their child before they go home.
In June 2025, we opened Sim Home which includes beds and a crib for our smallest patients, as well as food, a TV, seating and toys, some of the important things a family with kids needs.
How Sim Home works
Once we know a patient is getting close to discharge, we speak to the family to offer them the chance to stay at Sim Home.
They prepare for their stay as if they are going to a hotel, bringing everything they need from home to stay overnight as a family.
Sim Home gives families privacy to establish themselves as a family and get used to all the things they’ll do at home like feeding, napping and playing, while also managing any medical needs. And of course, nurses are always close by in case of questions or an emergency.
In just the five months since it opened, we’ve already seen Sim Home give parents more confidence to take care of their child on their own. It also prepares them for what life will be like when their medically complex child is home, as many patients require care throughout the night.
Other ways we’re helping parents and caregivers
Sim Home is one example of the training and resources we offer families to ensure our patients get home safe and each family is prepared and has everything they need.
Another resource we offer is our “Go Bag,” a duffel bag full of equipment and everything a family needs for the first 48 hours. That period can often be stressful for parents, so we also include some restaurant and food delivery gift cards to make life a little easier.
We also offer additional resources like online tutorials for frequently used medical equipment and a discharge catalog, which includes links to commonly needed supplies.
How you can help
If you’re interested in supporting our new Sim Home and the work we do for families and caregivers, please visit RankenJordanFoundation.org to donate.
At Ranken Jordan we work to take care of the whole child and that includes their family and making sure everyone gets home safe and prepared.
