Munson Outpatient Services collaborates with artist for special blood-draw rooms
Phlebotomist Patrick O’Brien recently worked the magic on the 3 ½-year-old patient who needed a blood draw.
“We tell them, ‘You are going to look for a whale when you are done,’” he said. “We have a bit of a buildup. Once the needle is safely put away and the bandage is on, we can turn off the regular light and turn on the black light.” That’s when the big orca pops up on the wall, along with a jellyfish, goldfish, and other ocean creatures.
Welcome to Munson Medical Center Outpatient Service’s new strategy for taking the sting out of a blood draw. Vibrant, colorful murals airbrushed under a black light that help patients forget any negative experience and leave in wonder.
Detroit-area artist Jaron Johnson recently spent two weekends turning two phlebotomy draw rooms at Outpatient Services’ West Front Street location into an underwater ocean scene and jungle environment as part of a new “Ow to Wow” campaign idea adapted from a Wyoming hospital.
Laboratory Interim Director Mary Ann Urban brought the concept back from a conference she attended at Mayo Clinic. Phlebotomy Manager Paul Kelly pursued it and with help from the company that painted scenes for the Wyoming facility, found Johnson.
The Westland-based mural artist had never airbrushed a scene using black light before. One would never know looking at the results.
“I researched and got images of real jellyfish and whales. You want to make it kid friendly,” he said. “I wanted to make big objects because kids are overwhelmed with big objects.”
As he prepared to do the second room, he and Kelly discussed the jungle scene. Initially, Kelly had toyed with the idea of a dinosaur scene, but decided to go with a jungle theme for the youngsters who may not be wowed by a T-rex or brontosaurus.
The end result?
“It looks spectacular,” he said. “Initially we talked about sneaking in a dinosaur somewhere in the jungle, but once Jaron got rolling his creative imagination ruled that out, and you can’t really argue with a talented artist about his art, and I’m glad I didn’t. He was right.”
Johnson went with a gorilla on a sidewall, and a jaguar wandering toward a waterfall on the main wall. He also wove in fish swimming down a river, a colorful macaw parrot, and of course, a monkey.
“Sometimes I start a project with a sketch, sometimes I don’t,” Johnson said. His career as a mural artist was launched after he painted a Winnie the Pooh on a nursery wall for a friend.
O’Brien said the mural strategy definitely seems to work. His young patient liked the whale.
“Kids gravitate to it,” he said. “They want to touch it.”
Munson Outpatient Services West Front Lab is open from 7 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at 3643 West Front St. in Traverse City. The phone number is 231-935-0590. For more information on Munson Outpatient Services, go to munsonhealthcare.org/outpatient.
A jaguar prowls the main wall in the jungle room at Munson Outpatient Services West Front Street
location.