Explore New Inpatient Floors at St. Jude

Quietly push aside palm fronds to encounter a slumbering cheetah. Taste the salt on your lips as you dive beneath the ocean and float among colorful seahorses. Pull on a space helmet and take flight, soaring to another galaxy.

Patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital no longer have to rely solely on their imaginations to visit such exotic locales. They need only stroll down the corridors of the Kay Research and Care Center.

In the fall of 2016, three inpatient units opened, each with a unique theme. Jungles, animals and lush plants greet children on the third floor. Undersea creatures large and small swim, paddle and float throughout the décor on the fourth floor. And kids blast off into space on the fifth floor. Ninety-foot-long interactive “journey walls” on each floor reflect the themes and offer opportunities for children to leave their hospital rooms for exercise, fellowship and mental stimulation.

St. Jude patient families served as embedded consultants for the facility’s design and construction team. Together, they created a space that will provide healing and respite for years to come.