When the massive crane was rolled in next to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital earlier this month, Amy Bush’s phone would not stop ringing.
But that’s a good thing, said Bush, chief operating officer of WVU Medicine Children’s hospital. It means work is progressing toward the June 2021 opening when the $150 million, 150-bed facility, geared solely to children and new mothers, will open, making it the first such hospital for the state of West Virginia.
WVU Medicine Children’s is now housed on one floor of Ruby Memorial.
“The community has been incredibly supportive,” Bush said.
Adding a hospital exclusively for children has been on the radar of WVU Medicine President and CEO Albert Wright since he took over leadership of the health care system in 2014. It is also another asset in Wright’s quest to transform WVU Medicine into a top 25 academic teaching hospital.
“My first week on the job, when I was touring all of the facilities, I started to envision what this hospital would be like,” Wright said.
By the time the 2020 football season kicks in, Wright said the tower will be enclosed, giving people an idea of the size and breadth of the project. (The building itself should be topped off by spring.)
“Most hospitals of our size and scope are in urban settings,” said Wright, who along with Bush toured several children’s hospitals for ideas prior to the local hospital being announced in November 2017.
“Borrowing brilliance,” he called it.
First and foremost, the nine-floor tower will be kid-friendly. Bright colors, paintings and sculptures will be used throughout the building, both Wright and Bush said.
“The only adult part of the building will be where the babies are delivered,” said Bush, who joined WVU Health Care in 2015. Bush, like Wright, had previously been with UPMC.
Construction of the new children’s hospital.
More than 500 premature babies were treated by WVU Medicine last year, a combination of infants brought in by parents or flown to Morgantown from other parts of the state for treatment.
“This will be a statewide hospital,” said Bush, adding WVU Medicine has close working relationships with health care providers in other parts of the state, including Charleston and Huntington.
“If you have a sick child, you will travel anywhere to get the best treatment,” Wright said.
“We want mom and baby in the same building,” Bush said.
The tower, which will be connected to the hospital by two walkways, will have its own emergency department with a separate entrance.
The tower will also have its own radiology department, 20-bed pediatric ICU, 50-bed neonatal ICU, operating rooms, endoscopy facilities and a 30-bed obstetrical unit with potential for expansion, to name a few. It will be the only hospital in the state with a pediatric cardiac surgery program, as well as the only epilepsy monitoring unit for children.
The tower will also have its own gift shop, chapel and cafeteria, and a school intervention program. A separate pharmacy will be on the top floor as well.
Patient rooms — all private with enough space for parents and grandparents — will be on the 6th floor and up.
“This will be a standalone hospital,” Wright said. “This is the real deal.”
Other amenities will include playrooms for patients and their siblings, where they can sit back and watch sports on television. There will be a laundry for parents, plus teachers will be available for children who need to keep up on school work.
“It’s the little things you don’t think about when you have a sick child,” Bush said.
“We wanted to create the best healing environment for kids.”
Wright and Bush said the hospital will be staffed by more than 200 doctors. Many of those physicians are coming from Durham, Dallas and Chicago, they said.
“We did not have a pediatric dentist for the state of West Virginia,” Wright said. “We recruited one for the hospital.”
Fundraising for the new facility is going well. To date, $40 million of the $60 million for the facility has been raised.
Wright said there are discussions underway about selling naming rights to specific areas of the new tower. But because fundraising is going so well, it is doubtful naming rights will be sold for the overall hospital, he added.
“We are building a hospital we would take our families to,” Wright said.
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