Ideas That Work: Kids Drive Themselves

Children at Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter in Wilmington, Del., were so stressed saying goodbye to their parents before heading to the operating room for dental procedures that they sometimes needed oral premedication to deal with the separation, says anesthesiologist Stephen R. Tanner, MD. Now it’s all smiles on the way to surgery since the center bought child-size electric vehicles that the kids ride in from the waiting room to the operating room. Like magic, scenes of crying children and parents turned into smiling parents taking photos of happy kids in a white BMW convertible or a blue Jeep tricked out with radios and flashing lights down the center’s hallway. It’s worked so well that the Christina Care Health System surgery center recently added a firetruck and a black Jeep to its fleet. More importantly, says Dr. Tanner, only 8% of pediatric patients require pre-operative sedation, down from 28%.

— Adam Taylor