Facts About The New Children’s Hospital

from Practice Update, Spring 2006

(pics, no pics included

• At 1.3 million square feet, our new “most healing” hospital was listed by Engineering News Record as the largest health-care construction project started in 2004. The project includes:
  • An inpatient facility (hospital)
  • Outpatient buildings
  • Renovation and expansion of a public school building
  • A 250,000-square-foot office building
  • Surface and structure parking (2,144 total parking spaces)
• Just 20 months after we broke ground, the new hospital is completely enclosed. More than 1,000 construction workers are on the site each day. We are on track for opening in fall 2007
• The project cost is estimated at approximately $509 million
• In 2007, we project approximately 11,400 inpatient admissions and approximately 385,000 outpatient visits at the new hospital and at our 11 care centers throughout the metro area
• The new hospital will have 270 beds, the majority in private rooms with private baths
• The new facility will have 14 operating rooms, two cardiology surgical operating rooms, and nine operating room/procedure rooms
• The hospital was designed for maximum efficiency. Programs that work together will be strategically located close to each other
• The building has been designed to incorporate as much natural light as possible, because studies have shown that natural light speeds the healing process
• Admissions counters will be low enough for children to see over. Families will have special respite areas throughout the hospital and gardens outside where they can reflect and relax
• Children’s is launching the first study of its kind that will use information from staff, patients and families about the current hospital to evaluate design changes in the new hospital
• The new hospital will incorporate the latest technology, including nurse-call capability and electronic medical records
• The project includes:
  • 34,000 cubic yards of concrete, 7 million pounds of reinforcing steel and more than 7,000 tons of structural steel
  • Enough room in the basement for three football fields
  • Two parking garages with room for 1,200 cars
  • 842 miles of wiring running through 238 miles of conduit
  • More than 16,000 light fixtures
  • 23 elevators to move patients, families, staff and visitors up and down the hospital’s 10 levels
  • A helipad that can accommodate a Blackhawk helicopter
  • 850,000 bricks on the exterior
  • 18 total air-handling units (delivered by 90 tractor-trailers)
  • So much drywall that it took 400 tractor-trailers to deliver it all