Annual Report 2022
Letter from Leadership
It feels like just yesterday we could not meet in person safely. We are so grateful this year to reopen the House’s communal spaces. Families can once again enjoy the Playroom, living room, dining room, kitchens, terraces, and the Blavatnik Family Foundation Wellness Center. As we look around the House, families are eating together, sharing stories and support, volunteers are returning offering services and activities to remind us that critical illness need not extinguish capacity for joy, curtail the ability to learn, or wear away families’ facility to advocate effectively for their children.
Pandemic notwithstanding, our ongoing constructions projects has resulted in adapted communal space at the house as well as in our hospital family rooms offering respite, food, and access to practical amenities like showers and laundry.
READ MORELetter from Leadership
It feels like just yesterday we could not meet in person safely. We are so grateful this year to reopen the House’s communal spaces. Families can once again enjoy the Playroom, living room, dining room, kitchens, terraces, and the Blavatnik Family Foundation Wellness Center. As we look around the House, families are eating together, sharing stories and support, volunteers are returning offering services and activities to remind us that critical illness need not extinguish capacity for joy, curtail the ability to learn, or wear away families’ facility to advocate effectively for their children.
Pandemic notwithstanding, our ongoing constructions projects has resulted in adapted communal space at the house as well as in our hospital family rooms offering respite, food, and access to practical amenities like showers and laundry.
Just as important as advancement in physical space, is the strategic development of partnerships to provide a wider range of our families expanded access to the social determinants of health services: housing, transportation, food, education, recreation and wellness services as they support their critically ill children through treatment at New York City hospitals. Our proximity to major hospital systems makes the House a valuable option for families from around the world, and the city’s five boroughs.
Ronald McDonald House New York provides services not available in clinical settings: peer-to-peer support, family-centered care, including caring/services for the caregivers, and an enduring sense of normalcy for patients during treatment built on family meals, computer rooms, laundry facilities, tutoring, recreational activities, and transportation services. RMH-NY’s family-centric model depends on the family to family, caregiver to caregiver, child to child connections not possible within a clinical setting—a seamless circle of support so that kids can be children first and patients second.
In working with our hospital partners, our role in the New York City continuum of healthcare has deepened. By blending remote access to services during the pandemic into our on-going operations, we are incubating a replicable model of family-centric, culturally competent care that can inform health policy, and help address the entrenched disparities. Toward that end, we have established Industry Advisory Councils in both hospitality and health care. Members include world-renown thought leaders in fields including guest services, wellness, pediatric oncology, pharmaceutical, health information, health technology, and tele-medicine.
To diversify funding, and provide evidence-based care, we must measure health outcomes in new ways. In addition to increasing virtual programming, we are using data analytics to drive decision- making and assess impact, continually putting the needs of families first. As we participate more deeply in the digital transformation currently underway at the House, we can translate and share our discoveries to the field to the expanding knowledge base at the nexus of healthcare and hospitality
Keeping Families Close
RMH-NY eased the burden of families of children with pediatric cancer and other serious illnesses by providing a home away from home for them as they underwent treatment in NYC hospitals. Our mission would be incomplete without the compassionate circle of support provided by our Family Support team. Our dedicated team of licensed social workers and community health-focused care coordinators played the pivotal role of assisting families in accessing services and resources that improve their quality of care.
They also simplified their navigation of NYC’s health care system. The team provided necessary support group initiatives through the advocacy groups comprised of active RMH-NY alumni families wanting to support those currently in the House. Family Support team members are the House’s frontline workers. As our expansion accelerated, they continued to act as our eyes and ears on the ground supporting RMH-NY health equity initiatives throughout the five boroughs.
Individuals Served
House Hangouts
Family Night Stays
Rides Provided
Families from
Families from
Creating Special Memories
Whether it’s a magical holiday celebration, an outdoor trip, or a themed party, we are committed to helping families create special memories during their time at RMH-NY. The smiles, laughter, and shared moments of happiness become cherished memories that help children feel like kids first and patients second.
Expanding Our Seamless Circle of Support
Opening of the Ronald McDonald Family Room at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
In the summer of 2022, we opened our second Family Room at NYC Health + Hospital/Elmhurst. This Family Room bolstered our footprint in the New York City community and helped strengthen our seamless circle of support to meet the needs of vulnerable families. Since Elmhurst Hospital is part of the largest public hospital system in New York – and the country – it was very important to us that we build our second family room here.
This Family Room was built directly adjacent to the NICU so that parents and caregivers of hospitalized children can have a comfortable place to rest, recover, and recharge, all while staying close to their child’s bedside. Our family rooms provide support to underserved New York City Communities and serve as a model for RMH-NY expansion. They are designed to further our health equity goals to help more NYC families than ever before. Our efforts continue to increase as plans to break ground on several more Family Rooms move forward in 2023 and beyond.
Volunteers
In 2022, we welcomed back the heart of the House: our volunteers. Though the road to complete recovery had been long and winding, we opened the communal areas of the House and began to see our amazing volunteers supporting every aspect of this new beginning.
They helped serve meals, engaged in activities, supported wellness initiatives, and supported all aspects of the House. Our Therapy Dogs began spreading love to our guests on a weekly basis and even led our Halloween parade. Our volunteer outreach had been substantial and fruitful as we welcomed more and more individual and corporate volunteer groups back to the House. In addition, we also grew our volunteering forces outside of the House into our Family Rooms and our Hospitality Carts in more hospitals throughout NYC.
55,890
5,632
896
60
2,165
Wellness
With certain restrictions lifted, the 11th floor of the House was once again humming with a steady and exciting vibration of life with so many new and returning caregivers at our Blavatnik Family Foundation Wellness Center. Our most popular caregiver services were offered live and in-person on a weekly basis. Our Wellness Center’s meticulously trained team of professionals, bolstered by an incredible group of volunteers, provided caregivers with essential moments of relaxation, ensuring they left feeling fully equipped to give their child the very best version of themselves.
698
450
Hospital Outreach
In addition to providing essential services and support to families living at the House, the Hospital Outreach team brings programs from the House to hospitalized young children and teens. From costumes, games, activities, and YouTube links, our Events In a Bag initiative delivers everything needed for a child to participate in a House event from their hospital room. RMH- NY is also proud to announce that we currently have 2 family rooms offering a place of respite to caregivers built directly onto the floors of pediatric hospitals. The family rooms, located at NYC Health + Hospitals / Elmhurst and NYC Health + Hospitals / Kings County served as a hub for our hospital outreach programs in 2021 as we still were challenged with COVID-19.
8,961
Children & Caregivers Served
4,771
Programs to Go Delivered
3,043
GO SNACK Packs Delivered
4,686
Hospitality to Go packages Delivered
25
Musical Magic Performances at Five Hospital Partners
11
Breathe In Breathe Out practitioner Led Sessions Offered
Communications Highlights
Ronald McDonald House New York Hosted its 28th Annual Skate with the Greats event on Friday March 11that Chelsea Piers and Sky Rink. The event was in partnership with the New York Rangers and RBC Capital Markets.
Care Bears brightened up the days of kids at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY.
Ruth C. Browne, SD, is president and chief executive officer of Ronald McDonald House New York, which provides care, support, and services to families battling pediatric cancer and other serious illnesses.
Nine-year-old Kai Brown, who lived at the Ronald McDonald House three years ago, gave a moving piano performance to the gala’s audience, including pieces he composed himself.
Our canine volunteers offer a sense of normalcy and “home” when a family is staying at RMH-NY. Many times kids have to leave their family pet as they come to New York for treatment and to see the smile on their faces when they are greeted by one of our Therapy Dogs is truly heartwarming. We love our 2 and 4 legged volunteers!
On Tuesday, December 20th, Ronald McDonald House New York hosted a holiday musical extravaganza for all of the children and families currently seeking treatment at New York City Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in the Bronx.
