Even though the weather was dreary, there were nothing but smiles as WVU Medicine held a topping out ceremony Tuesday afternoon for its new $150 million Children’s Hospital.
“I am happy to be here,” said WVU President Gordon Gee as he walked up to sign the ceremonial last beam put into place.
“It’s a great deal for all of you guys.”
Indeed. The topping out ceremony is a builders’ rite traditionally held when the last beam is placed atop a structure during its construction and means the project has reached a milestone. In the case of Children’s, the frame is completed.
The nine-story hospital, scheduled to open in 2021, will be the first of its kind for the state of West Virginia. First, it will be standalone. The current WVU Children’s Hospital is on the sixth-floor of J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital.
“This will be a transformational project,” said Albert Wright, president and CEO of West Virginia Health System, who began pushing for the project in 2014 when he joined the health system.
“It is one of the most spectacular we will build,” he said.
“What you see is the skeleton right now,” said Amy Bush-Marone, chief operating officer at WVU Medicine Children’s. “It will be closed in by November.”
The nine-floor facility will have 150 beds and each room will be private. The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit will have 27 beds including six beds for epilepsy monitoring. Other features of the hospital include:
- A 50-bed Neonatal Intensive Care unit; a 34-bed Pediatric Acute Care unit including six beds for hematology/oncology, and a 30-bed birthing center.
- A separate emergency department, a family resource center with a special lounge decorated for Mountaineers fans, a pharmacy, cafeteria and gift shop.
- A Pediatric Cancer Institute and Pediatric Heart Valve and Vascular Institute.
- Dental and eye procedure rooms,
- Operating rooms
- Cardiac catheterization,
- Interventional radiology and endoscopy facilities.
- A medical office building including pediatric sub-specialty and maternal-fetal medicine clinics.
“Nothing is more important than families and children,” said Gee during the ceremony. “When a loved one gets sick, time stops.”
WVU Children’s serves nearly 141,000 patients annually, as well as treats more than 66,600 emergency department patients. It does more than 9,500 surgeries and completes more than 227,500 clinic and hospital visits per year.
“This will make life better for everyone in the state,” Gee said.
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President Gordon Gee poses with group at topping ceremony for Childrens Hospital.
