When Josie Hull was born as a conjoined twin, her medical journey began before she took her first breath. Separated from her sister Teresa at UCLA Medical Center in 2002 after a grueling 23-hour surgery, Josie spent her childhood moving between hospital rooms—a landscape of fluorescent lights, beeping monitors and institutional walls.
That experience led to a powerful realization: the environment around a sick child matters profoundly, not just for physical healing but for psychological resilience.
Once Upon a Room, the nonprofit organization Josie founded with her mother Jenny and best friend Siena in 2014, has reached a significant milestone: Children's Hospital at Montefiore Einstein in the Bronx became its 50th hospital partner this month. The organization has transformed approximately 30,000 hospital rooms across the country since its founding.
The partnership with Children's Hospital at Montefiore Einstein, which treats over 7,000 pediatric patients annually, represents growing recognition that recovery environments can be intentionally designed to support young patients emotionally and developmentally.
"For children separated from their homes and families while ill and undergoing treatment, emotional support is inseparable from medical support," said Hilary Woodward, MS, CCLS, director of patient and family programs at the Bronx hospital.
Once Upon a Room's model begins with the hospital's Child Life Specialists—trained professionals whose role is to address the emotional and developmental needs of hospitalized children. These specialists work with patients and families to understand individual preferences, interests and comfort needs. Once Upon a Room then collaborates to transform the hospital room itself: decorating with meaningful objects, colors and textures chosen specifically for that child.
The goal is to create a space that feels less institutional and more like home, a place where a child can maintain some sense of identity and agency during a period of profound vulnerability.
Children's Hospital at Montefiore Einstein has demonstrated leadership in complex pediatric care. The hospital successfully separated two pairs of conjoined twins: Carl and Clarence Aguirre in 2004, and Jadon and Anias McDonald in 2016.
Research demonstrates that hospital room design—including access to natural light, nature imagery, personalization and reduction of noise and visual chaos—correlates with reduced anxiety in pediatric patients, fewer behavioral problems and improved family satisfaction. Some studies suggest it may even support faster physiological recovery.
Josie, who turns 25 this month, brings credibility to this work grounded in lived experience. She isn't observing childhood illness from outside but lived it herself. Her experience as a patient informed the founding of Once Upon a Room and continues to shape its approach.
At a transformation event on July 2, Josie, Jenny and Siena worked alongside hospital staff to redesign patient rooms, literally rebuilding the kinds of spaces that could have made a difference during Josie's own hospitalizations.
The 50-hospital milestone signals a model for scaling this intervention. Once Upon a Room has demonstrated that the partnership is replicable across different hospital systems, from major academic medical centers to community hospitals.
