Community

In Need of a Good Name

A visit to outpatient services with mom wasn’t exactly at the top of the list of how four-year old Peyton Jung of Evart wanted to spend her day. But all that changed when she saw the three little turtles in the aquarium of the Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital emergency department waiting room.

She watched in fascination as the little reptiles entertained her with their antics. As part of the Planetree culture at the hospital, they helped to pass the time while her mother waited for her name to be called. There was only one problem; Peyton didn’t know their names. She marched up to ask the kind lady at the information desk (after all, if anyone should know their names, it would certainly be her!) but the sad fact was they were indeed nameless.

Peyton asked if it would be okay if she named them for the hospital. She was assured that not only would it be “okay”, but that of course they NEEDED to have names! So she thought and thought and came up with two special names. One would be Kendra and one would be Max. But there was the problem of the third one. Peyton couldn’t think of a name that was just right for this last little turtle. She was troubled until the employees that were watching and listening to her all agreed on a very memorable name: Peyton. So now all of the Spectrum turtles have names, thanks to a sweet little four-year old girl who understood that even the smallest creatures deserve a name.

Planetree is about more than just entertaining visitors in our hospital. Planetree is a non-profit organization that helps to create patient-centered care in healing environments by meeting people’s needs of body, mind and spirit. One of the things that Planetree believes is that physical environments can enhance healing, health and wellbeing. Staff is committed to improving medical care from the patient’s perspective, empowering patients and families through education, information and encouraging healing partnerships with caregivers.