Child watch services begin at Womack Army Medical Center

Photo By Twana Atkinson | Erin Chandler, an Armed Services YMCA employee plays with children of parents that have appointments in the Womack Army Medical Center's obstetrician-gynecologist clinic January 30. The Armed Services YMCA just launched child watch services for beneficiaries attending this clinic.  

FORT BRAGG, NC, UNITED STATES

01.30.2020

Story by Robert Kerns 

Womack Army Medical Center

During a chance meeting between Womack Army Medical Center Hospital Commander Col. John Melton and Armed Services YMCA Chief Operations and Program Officer Charlie Williams the two discussed the benefits of a children’s waiting area in the medical center.
Now a year and a half later, WAMC and The ASYMCA held a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of a children’s waiting area in the obstetrician-gynecologist clinic January 30.
The children’s waiting room will help to alleviate the childcare burden parents may have during medical appointments at WAMC’s OBGYN clinic.
The children’s waiting room, staffed by the ASYMCA, will help readiness in Soldiers.
“When a Soldier is not right at home they are not right at work,” said Melton.
Melton explained that children’s waiting room will help to assure beneficiaries are getting the medical care they need and that is one less thing for a deployed Soldier to worry about.
According to Melton, the U.S. Army creates temporary single parent households every day. The children’s waiting area will help to lessen the aggravation of getting childcare for OBGYN appointments at WAMC.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony, Williams spoke on how the children’s waiting area will alleviate the cascading effects of missed appointments.
When one person misses an appointment it affects several other families. A missed appointment is one that could have been filled by another family.
“All told in 2019, we enabled more than 17,000 appointments to be met with childcare being provided,” said Williams. “This is only going to increase as we continue to expand, including here at Fort Bragg.”
With the addition of WAMC the ASYMCA is operating 15 children’s waiting room programs across the United States.
“Armed Services YMCA, as an enterprise, operates Children’s Waiting Room at 14 other sites right now,” said Williams. “That’s between locations in Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, California, Missouri, and Kentucky, and one coming up in Lawton, Oklahoma.”
Currently, children’s waiting room is only available to those with appointments in the OB/GYN clinic but as space becomes available in the hospital they hope to expand the availability.

• Date Taken: 01.30.2020
• Date Posted: 01.30.2020 15:49
• Story ID: 361108
• Location: FORT BRAGG, NC, US