Concerning the issue of childcare for younger/older children when one is in
the hospital -- In the U.S., if your child is at a big children's hospital,
there will almost certainly be a Ronald McDonald house nearby.  These are
places for families to stay in just such situations as you describe -- when
one child must be in the hospital and the parents live too far away to
commute, and can't afford to stay in a hotel.  Ronald McDonald houses are
either free or charge on a sliding fee scale according to ability to pay.
They include rooms to sleep in, kitchens to cook in, play rooms for kids,
with TV and toys, and places for parents to get together and offer each
other support.  They are funded by McDonald's, the burger and french fry folks.

Many other large hospitals that aren't just children's hospitals and don't
have a Ronald McDonald house, may still have made arrangements with local
motels to provide some of these same services.  For example, in Temple,
Texas, home of the big Scott and White teaching hospital (S&W is a big,
wonderful HMO in central Texas, and is the teaching affiliate for the Texas
A&M College of Medicine) -- there is a motel next to the hospital with
reduced rates for people who need several days of outpatient treatment, and
for families of people in the hospital.  Like a Ronald McDonald house, they
have kitchens for cooking your own food, play/TV rooms for children, and
meeting rooms for adults.  You can bring your own babysitter along, or they
can provide you with names of people locally who will come to the motel and
stay with the children -- and the motel helps people organize on-site child
care if there are several families needing it at the same time, or for an
extended time.  I know there is also one hospital where the employees have
an on-site child care, and patients' children can be dropped off for up to
several hours at a time.  Personally, I wouldn't want the child care to be
*inside* the hospital, as there are too many germs being brought in!

Kathy D.
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