Dr. Jeffrey H. Schwartz is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. In a recent interview with FLORIDA TREND, he discussed how the new Pediatric Oncology Center for Hope at the Studer Family Children’s Hospital has improved patient treatment and family experience.

Dedicated Center: "The new center gives us a fully separate treatment unit. In the past, our patients were intermixed with other patients throughout the hospital, which wasn’t a big problem from a day-to-day care standpoint. But the new center does eliminate or reduce our young patients’ potential exposure to other infectious diseases."

Creating Distractions: "The second benefit is this unit is much more family and child oriented. There’s a small movie theater and a children’s playroom, which allow our patients and their families to get out of their rooms, interact with other families and form relationships. It's just such an awesome distraction for them."

Dog Therapy: "We’ve also started what we call the facility dog program. We have four dogs that belong to some members of our staff. The dogs come daily and interact with the children, who really light up when they see them. The facility dogs just have made a huge difference with our patients and our staff members. It’s been a wonderful addition to our program."