The first phase of Sacred Heart Medical Centers planned $39.4 million Childrens Hospital opened its doors late last month in 70,000 square feet of new space atop the medical centers east tower.


The brightly painted walls, carefully designed patient rooms, and myriad configurations of clinical space are tangible enough results of a 16-month construction process. Defining what a childrens hospital is, however, is a little more involved, says Joe Gilene, COO and executive director of the new hospital.


A childrens hospital, Gilene says, is about having specialists in pediatric oncology, neurology, nephrology, gastroenterology, pulmonary care, and other areas of medicine together in one place. Its about pulling together pediatric expertise in weight loss, fetal alcohol syndrome, nutrition, physical therapy, diabetes, spina bifida, cleft lip and palate, and mental health. Its about having pharmacists trained in pediatric medicine, and having them located within the clinical space, rather than floors away. Its about establishing specialized pediatric care within every patient area elsewhere in the hospital, including in the emergency and surgical departments.


Its about providing space and amenities for families whose children need prolonged treatment, such as in the hospitals new pediatric oncology unit, he says.


A childrens hospital is so many things that arent brick and mortar, says Gilene.


Planning for the hospital took years and included investigatory trips to eight other childrens hospitals; thousands of hours of work by design teams that included hospital staff, patient families, and physicians; and the erection of full-scale mockups of patient rooms in a warehouse to fine tune the designs. It also entailed establishing or strengthening partnerships with everyone from private clinicians to the volunteer leaders of Ronald McDonald House, which equipped two family rooms within the hospital.


Phase one of the project includes two 35,000-square-foot new floors built atop the hospitals east tower. On one of those new floors, level three, is the new, 18-bed pediatric oncology unit, which was launched earlier this year in temporary quarters elsewhere on the hospital campus. The other new floor, level four, houses inpatient and outpatient care in a host of specialties, and includes leased space for private clinical practices in pediatric cardiology, pulmonary medicine, and neurology.


Below those two new levels is the 33,000-square-foot Psychiatric Center for Children & Adolescents, which already was operating on the second floor of the east tower.


Level three of the Childrens Hospital connects via skywalk to the third floor of the hospitals main building, which already houses Sacred Hearts 35-bed general pediatrics ward and its 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit.


We wanted to take advantage of what already exists here, says Gilene. Many childrens hospitals have separate facilities. We didnt want to duplicate.


In the projects second phase, which is under way and expected to be completed in about a year, the hospital is building an additional 260,000 square feet of space onto its west wing, and is remodeling another about 57,000 square feet there to create a seven-story west tower extending to McClellan Street.


The third floor of that structure will house the Childrens Hospitals new 47-bed neonatal intensive care unit, which will replace a 16-bed unit on the hospitals ninth floor. Though not technically part of the Childrens Hospital, the west towers second floor will house the hospitals Birth Place and newborn nursery, which will be part of that structures new Womens Health Center. The Birth Place will be moving from the main buildings ninth floor.


A pediatric surgery center will be located on lower-level one of the west tower along with other new surgical suites.


In 2005, Sacred Heart will add a main entrance to the Childrens Hospital on the south side of the east tower, and its considering making cosmetic changes to the third floor of the main building to tie it in with the design of the third floors of the east and west wings.


The idea is to have contiguous space for the Childrens Hospital all the way from McClellan Street to Division Street, says Gilene.


When completed, the Childrens Hospital will occupy nearly 162,000 square feet of floor space and will include 154 pediatric beds.


Including the west tower, the overall construction at the hospital is expected to cost about $139.4 million. The cost is up slightly from an earlier estimate of $137 million.


Sacred Heart says the overall project has created 180 to 250 construction jobs, and the Childrens Hospital alone will add about 60 new professional and support jobs by the time its completed. The hospital also has been recruiting additional pediatric specialists to the area who would operate private practices in conjunction with Sacred Heart.


Gilene says the hospital so far has helped to recruit four such specialists and expects within the next year to attract another about 10 to the community, including in such fields as pediatric neurology, nephrology, and gastroenterology, as well as pediatric specialists for the emergency room and intensive care units.


Why is Sacred Heart investing so heavily in pediatric medicine? Gilene says that the hospital had been experiencing a 10 percent to 15 percent annual growth in inpatient pediatric care, about 50 percent growth in pediatric imaging, and about 40 percent growth in pediatric surgical volumes in recent years.


He says Spokane and Sacred Hearts role as a regional tertiary center continues to draw more patients in from other areas of the Northwest, and the hospital would not be able to sustain its current growth in pediatric care and still retain and expand quality of care without this expansion.


Also, Gilene estimates that between 600 and 800 Eastern Washington families a year, and more from North Idaho and western Montana, are traveling to Seattle or other regions for comprehensive pediatric care. Sacred Heart hopes its new Childrens Hospital will attract some of those families, which would help further cement Spokanes reputation as a health-care center and provide economic benefits through their treatment and visits here.