The UI Children’s Hospital’s “teen lounge” is not exactly teenager-friendly.

The “very, very small” room houses one pool table, an old, scratched big-screen TV, and a single computer, said child life specialist Emily Hazelwood.

“It needs some more stuff that kids like to do,” she said. “The main thing is there’s an age group that really gets lost.”

But the entertainment needs of teenage patients may finally be met in coming months as the Children’s Hospital is currently second place in the Gameroom Giveaway online contest.

The competition winners will receive a high-tech game room with XBox 360s, plasma TVs, computers, webcams, video games, and matching furniture — all paid for by Microsoft up to $10,000.

More than 150 U.S. hospitals are participating in the contest, hosted by a partnership between the Children’s Miracle Network and Microsoft XBox.

Anyone can vote online until Oct. 16, and voters are then eligible to win an XBox 360.

The top three highest-voted hospitals are awarded the game room, and the UI Children’s Hospital has never dropped below third place, Hazelwood said. It is currently standing at No. 2, with roughly 275,861 votes as of Monday night.

A permanent game room would give extended-stay patients in particular an important sense of “normalcy,” said Aubrey Cichelli, the director of public relations for Children’s Miracle Network.

“For kids who are there a long time … the hospital becomes more than just a hospital. It becomes their home,” she said. “So to have a game room where they can go and just be kids … takes their mind off of the more mature things that kids their age don’t have to deal with.”

At the UI Children’s Hospital, Hazelwood said, the game room would offer patients a chance to socialize the way other teens do, by using Facebook or having friends visit the high-tech lounge.

In addition to providing a place for fun, Cichelli said, the XBoxes could even shorten patients’ hospital stay.

“Kids who get the chance to feel normal and comfortable, and not scared or overwhelmed, recover better,” Cichelli said, and the care-free atmosphere of a game room is critical to recovery. “It’s something they can almost brag about to their friends. It makes them feel special.”