Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital's government affairs team frequently visits lawmakers in Tallahassee to advocate for children's health care issues.

Why Advocate for a Children's Hospital?

Children are not just little adults. Their health care needs to be customized and provided by people specially trained to care for kids. National studies show outcomes are better with pediatric-specific care.

Here are a few examples of how Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital does things differently:

• Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital's sole focus is pediatrics.
• Our well-trained staff help children feel at ease during a procedure, reducing the need for another screening.
• We use equipment specially designed for smaller patients.
• Many of our specialists treat newborns through young adults who have a wide range of conditions adult specialists rarely encounter.
• With close to 100 of the highest-level care beds, our neonatal intensive care unit is one of the largest in the southeastern United States. Our expert NICU staff care for babies weighing as little as a pound.
• Our Child Life specialists are part of our multidisciplinary team that makes a children's hospital unique. In addition to Child Life specialists, patients have access to a music therapist and academic support. These specialists add value by maintaining play as an essential, natural part of childhood. Play facilitates healing, coping, mastery, self-expression, creativity, achievement and learning, all which are vital to a child's optimal growth and development.
• We provide training for parents to respond to medical situations after they take their child home and for clinicians through our Center for Medical Simulation and Innovative Education. We train first responders on dealing with children in high-stress situations.