Franciscan Hospital for Children

My son was here for inpatient for 8 weeks. I can not say enough about the caring and informative staff. The social worker and doctor assigned to my son worked together as such an amazing team and never made me feel uncomfortable with any questions I had wether big or small. They also were very willing to work with my son’s schools and outpatient team. A+++ thank you!

This hospital is not good at all. They have canceled us 3 times already and every time we had to wait months for another appointment. We finally have our appointment and one person didn’t show up so instead of letting us go they want to wait and make us wait hours. Our appointment was 930 now they are saying 130. My daughter is 3 and hasn’t eaten since 8 last night she shouldn’t have to wait just because someone else didn’t show up in time. This is just not right at all. I am not happy with this hospital. Ok so they tell us she can have a Popsicle so they give her one she puts it in her mouth and they come in a take it away and say now you can’t have it we are taking you in an hour. My daughter is so upset and crying so bad. I am so beyond unhappy

This reflects the social workers & Dr’s that work with the kids in Unit 1.
Our daughter who had some issues had to come here. The staff members on the floor — some where kind and compassion it and really gave what was needed and then others were a tad rougher. As for the Social workers & Dr’s all I have to say is they are just great. Not only they helped our daughter but they were patience, compassionate, understand and really did care about her. They went beyond what their job entailed. As for the other hospital staff on all levels of jobs they treat you the parent with the ut most respect and goes beyond the call of duty. If you have to be at this Hospital for the level of support you might need — you need to go come here. My hats go off everyone here. THANK YOU

I’ve had the privilege of interning at the children’s inpatient unit this past semester, and have been impressed by both the caliber of expertise and consistent quality of care provided by everyone on the unit. I couldn’t have asked for a more complete learning experience from my graduate program and I certainly recommend this program to any family with a child in crisis.

How do you describe an institution that doesn’t say «No» to kids in need? The answer is that words could never do FHFC (Franciscan Hospital for Children) justice. It doesn’t matter the illness, disease, disability or difficulty to FHFC. They endeavor 24 hours a day 365 days a year to improve the lives, the quality of lives of their patients and their families.
FHFC operates in the shadow of much more famous local institutions… Children’s Hospital, Dana Farber, The Jimmy Fund. They do it from some non descript buildings in Brighton, MA. Non Descript from the Outside, only! Inside small and big miracles happen daily.
FHFC first came to our attention when our prematurely born infant was ready, after 5 months to leave the NICU at Beth Israel Hospital. Our son, a true miracle of love, care, science and modern medicine, w/​a healthy dose of luck, and good karma, and lots of prayers thrown in, survived being born at 1 ½ lbs, 2 ½ mos. early. Four months later it became clear he was outgrowing the NICU. Still affected by his Chronic Lung Disease, aka CLD, Abe was ready for a «stepdown» unit. There are really only two choices in Boston, Spaulding Rehab, and FHFC. Both are fine institutions, but FHFC is focused solely on children. This made our decision easy. Our son now almost 5 mos. old had grown to 10lbs. He was still on oxygen requiring a nasal cannula. Our son spent another 4 mos. at FHFC, growing and being weaned off of oxygen. The staff and services were great. Our son thrived with his care, therapies, and the overabundance of love and affection that is part of the «soft side» of the FHFC experience. Four months after arriving our son was now 15 lbs and ready to come home. He came home on Halloween, 3 yrs ago this month. He needed oxygen at home for another couple of months, but by January 2011, on his 1 yr birthday, he came off oxygen.
3 Months later our son went back to FHFC for Medical Daycare. The Medical daycare staff took to our son w/​the same kind of love, affection, that is prevalent throughout FHFC. He has been attending Medical Daycare since. The difference is that he is now almost 4, attends the pre school in our town, is a happy, healthy, crazy about his Boston sports teams little boy, w/​boundless energy, an inquisitive mind, and a terrific young intellect. Part of his love of learning, of music, his skills interacting with others were nurtured by FHFC and the Medical Daycare team. We are truly grateful.
Our son is a little miracle, a «mitzvah» a blessing to us and all who know him, we will ever be grateful to the staff, clinicians, doctors, nurses, teachers, therapists and caregivers at FHFC.
This place is the real deal! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Never go here for dentistry. Two bad experiences are forcing me to warn everybody.
They employ dental students to do work, and so it’s a toss up whether or not you get somebody competent. One of my sons went for a routine cleaning — turns out they took some xrays and saw cavities and started drilling, only to realize he didn’t have a cavity in one tooth. Then when they applied fillings to the cavity and the drill hole they made, they took so long trying to get the equipment in my son’s mouth he gagged and threw up everywhere. I know some kids have a stronger gag reflex than others but I was appalled.
Today they called me about a visit my son made this week with his mom — problem is he didn’t go. They insisted he was there, had my son’s date of birth and address correct, etc. They wouldn’t speak to me anymore and told my wife to call them back. They did realize the error and called back to apologize though.
I’d recommend Pediatric Dental in Brookline — that’s where I go now.

This bearing only applies to Unit 2 which is the only portion of the hospital we have used so far.
My brother has been in there for weeks now recovering from a hip replacement from Boston Children’s. At first I was nervous because all we’ve ever known is Boston Children’s but now I had to admit I prefer this hospital over BCH.
The staff are much more attentive to him. They are constantly doing his oral care (he’s on a G-​tube and is on meds that cause a coating around his teeth and gumes), repositioning him, and overall just interacting with him. The hospital even took him to a BC football game on an outing!
When I come to visit him he’s always doing something different. He’s either in bed, or in the game room with other children, or in his chair… they don’t just abandon him like I’ve felt has happened in the past at BCH.
5 stars all the way. Great care, great people.

My daughter had to have day oral surgery here. The staff called on a regular basis to make sure I had my paperwork in and confirm the appointment. I got a call the day before about check in.
The booklet that came didn’t have great directions and this hospital is close to Elizabeth’s hospital. Not being familiar with the area we got all turned around.
We did finally park on the side entrance, got checked in, put our window pass in the windshield and away we went. We were escorted to the waiting room and then we moved right in.
The nurse and anesthesiologist explained everything in real words and made my daughter feel comfortable.
We gowned up and were able to stay with her until she was fast asleep.
They were able to give her the IV after she was asleep and gave her shots for the mouth pain.
My daughter hates going to the dentist and orthodontist much less have a bunch of teeth pulled out. We tried and it was not an option so we went this route.
It was well worth it. The staff made her feel safe and comfortable and at ease.
She woke up a bit groggy but was soon tuned into the movie they had playing. They gave her a few books to look at and one to take home. The nurse packed up a goodie bag with medical supplies and gave complete instructions for the next couple of days.
They called the following day to follow up and see how things went. Awesome! I would do it again and I know my daughter would too. This was much less traumatic and worth it!

My 6 year old daughter feared going to our local dentist. When we came here, they welcomed her and treated her with joy. She has looked forward to coming here each time, even when she had procedures scheduled. Highly recommended!

We had a great experience here.
This hospital was recommended to us by our dentist in Lowell. She doesn’t do surgery, so she referred us here. They were great to our children.
Our youngest had to have teeth removed and capped. They put her to sleep so that they could do everything in one visit.
Our oldest is going in next week for surgery. The people we dealt with both times were very nice. They carefully explain everything and go over everything thoroughly.
I highly recommend this hospital for dental procedures for children.

Unethical staff that are very unprofessional with their population. Trying to talk to the secretary is like talking to a wall and the staff seem to be burnt out to the point of not focusing on the children’s needs. Very disappointing.