Mapping childcare support for patients at a sample of North American hospitals and cancer centers: an environmental scan

Abstract

Approximately one quarter of cancer patients are parents to young children. One unique challenge faced by this patient group is the di culty of accessing childcare support during medical appointments.Hospital-based childcare options could represent a solution to this problem, but to this point, no comprehensive scans have described existing on-site childcare centres. The purpose of this study is to identify and characterize on-site childcare services available to patients at North American hospitals. This information could inform the development of similar programs for cancer patients. MethodsUsing publicly available information, an environmental scan of the grey literature was conducted to investigate Canadian and American hospitals for the presence of childcare services. A standardized data collection tool was used to extract centre characteristics. ResultsTwenty-six childcare centres were identi ed across 161 hospitals. The majority of the centres were associated with pediatric hospitals (77%) and were located in the United States (69%). Only a single childcare centre was associated with a cancer hospital. All centres accommodated children between the ages of 3 and 8. Most centres were open for over 30 hours per week (77%) and were free of charge to users (89%). Other characteristics, including capacity and sta ng, varied widely. ConclusionsThese results represent an inventory of patient-accessible, on-site childcare services currently available at North American hospitals. Cancer patients who are also parents may especially need this kind of support, as they are at high risk for nancial toxicity.