SAN DIEGO, Dec. 18 – Today, two well-known San Diego organizations announced a unique partnership designed to entertain and educate patients and their families about wildlife around the world and serve as a model for children’s hospitals nationwide.
Funded by a generous gift by businessman and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego and San Diego Zoo Global announced the launch of San Diego Zoo Kids, a television broadcast channel that features programming about unique and endangered animal species and is available in every patient room and in waiting areas.
“Caring for sick and injured children goes beyond providing excellent medical care,” said Donald B. Kearns, MD, Acting President of Rady Children’s. “With programming that is both entertaining and educational, San Diego Zoo Kids enhances our patients’ experience and contributes to an environment that promotes healing. Rady Children’s is thrilled to be the first children’s hospital in the nation to launch the new channel, which will soon be made available to other children’s hospitals across the country.”
The channel features video from the Zoo’s famous panda cams as well as other live cameras, fun and educational pieces about unique species and up close video encounters of popular animals with the Zoo’s national spokesperson, Rick Schwartz.
“We have always believed in the importance of putting people in touch with animals as a way to conserve species,” said Doug Myers, President for San Diego Zoo Global. “What we have heard from medical care professionals is that animal interaction and animal stories can also help promote well-being. San Diego Zoo Global has a wealth of animal stories and, through the generosity of Denny Sanford, we are able to make these stories available to the families at Rady Children’s Hospital.”
About Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego:
Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego is a 475-bed pediatric care facility providing the largest source of comprehensive pediatric medical services in San Diego, Southern Riverside and Imperial counties. Rady Children’s is the only hospital in the San Diego area dedicated exclusively to pediatric healthcare and is the region’s only designated pediatric trauma center. In June 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rady Children’s among the best children’s hospitals in the nation in all ten pediatric specialties the magazine surveyed. For more information, visit www.rchsd.org and find us on Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube.
About San Diego Zoo Global:
The San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy is dedicated to bringing endangered species back from the brink of extinction. The Conservancy makes possible the wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) of the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, and international field programs in more than 35 countries. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part more than 35 countries. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part by The Foundation of the Zoological Society of San Diego.
###