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Arkansas Children’s Hospital Breaks Ground on $115 Million Wing

Publication Date: Thursday, September 04, 2008

(LITTLE ROCK, ARK.) Sept. 4, 2008 – Arkansas Children’s Hospital brought the dirt indoors today to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new $115 million wing that eventually will allow it to care for thousands more sick children every year. The hospital held its first-ever indoor groundbreaking because the rainy weather has saturated the site of the new South Wing.

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The hospital community came together in Children’s Hall to celebrate the start of work on the expansive facility, which will feature an entirely new emergency department and dozens of modern clinic rooms. When the construction is complete, the new Arkansas Children’s Hospital South Wing will add 54 inpatient beds to the hospital’s current total of 316.

Anticipated funds to build the facility will come from cash reserves, philanthropic donations and projected bond issues. The ACH South Wing is expected to open for occupancy in the fall of 2011.

“The new South Wing will allow Arkansas Children’s Hospital to deliver an unprecedented level of care to the kids who need it most,” said ACH President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Bates, MD. “We’ll be delighted to see the day when we open its doors and can help more patients recover and simply get back to being kids.”

In the past few years, ACH has stretched to meet the demands of caring for the state’s youngest patients. This has been felt particularly in the Emergency Department (ED), the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Each of these areas will be expanded with the addition of the South Wing.

In Fiscal Year 2008, Arkansas Children’s Hospital served approximately 240 patients each day, and the new South Wing will allow the hospital to treat significantly more.

On Thursday, several city and state officials, including Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, joined the hospital to commemorate the groundbreaking. They turned dirt that had been imported indoors for the occasion and explained the statewide need for expanded capacity for children’s health care.

The 258,000 square-foot South Wing will open much-needed space for providing the highest standard of pediatric care possible. The new ED will include telemedicine technology and four trauma rooms, as well as a dedicated orthopedics suite and a decontamination unit. In addition, the South Wing will open new space for the NICU and CVICU to accommodate the growing demand for their services. An entirely new Hematology/Oncology unit will open in the South Wing for the state’s pediatric cancer and blood disorder patients, as will a new inpatient unit dedicated for care of infants through 3-year-olds.

The project actually will provide about 100 new patient beds, but the hospital plans to retire many that date back more than 40 years. The net increase in patient beds will be 54. The new South Wing also will include 56 new exam rooms, as well as 19 new procedural or diagnostic rooms. A roof garden complete with benches, Arkansas foliage and play areas will be open to patients, families and employees.

The South Wing will rise four stories and will be located on land that is now a parking lot just south of the main hospital and west of its Roy & Christine Sturgis Building. The finished facility will sit in the vicinity of Battery Street and 10^thStreet. The facility was designed by Cromwell Architects and will be built by Nabholz Construction.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital is the only pediatric medical center in Arkansas and one of the largest in the United States serving children from birth to age 21. The campus spans 28 city blocks and houses 316 beds, a staff of approximately 500 physicians, 80 residents in pediatrics and pediatric specialties and more than 4,000 employees. The private, nonprofit healthcare facility boasts an internationally renowned reputation for medical breakthroughs and intensive treatments, unique surgical procedures and forward-thinking medical research - all dedicated to fulfilling our mission of enhancing, sustaining and restoring children's health and development. ACH, recently named for the third time as one of U.S. News & World Report’s best pediatric hospitals, also ranked No. 76 on the 2007 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®. For more information, visit www.archildrens.org.

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