St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., treats childhood cancer, sickle cell disease, and other life-threatening disorders. Patients and families receiving treatment often live in off-campus housing provided by St. Jude during treatment—sometimes for weeks or months at a time.
Recognizing this situation, St. Jude offers services for family that go beyond traditional healthcare needs, such as a pharmacy or medical supply pick-up, to include a post office and bank as well as respite and activity spaces on campus.
To consolidate those services into one location to make them easier for families to access, the organization turned a vacant inpatient floor on its campus into a treatment- and clinical-staff-free zone.
Opened this past February, the 45,000-square-foot Family Commons houses a variety of spaces, including pre-K to high school classrooms with a science…
