Joe Gilenes ties to Cincinnati were strong: He was born and raised there, married another Ohio native, and spent 17 years working at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, eventually becoming a member of the hospitals senior-management team.


So what could lure this devoted Buckeye-state denizen to Spokane?


Very rarely in a health-care administrators career do you get an opportunity to build a new hospital, Gilene says, but thats just what hes doing as the first executive director of the new Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital here.


Gilene, 44, started his new job in March last year, just a month before construction of the $40-million project began.


Today, hes eagerly anticipating the September opening of the first phase of the facility even as he envisionsand plans fora dynamic role for the childrens hospital here in the future.


Following Cincinnatis lead


Gilene says his inspiration for what Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital could become comes from Cincinnati Childrens Hospital, a 350-bed facility that U.S. News & World Report magazine last summer ranked as the ninth-best pediatric hospital in the nation.


Cincinnati Childrens, for example, has a major emphasis on research related to pediatric health care, ranking No. 3 nationally among childrens hospitals in the amount of government funds it receives for research, the hospital says.


Similarly, Gilene says he hopes to channel more of the Inland Northwests already robust medical research activities toward pediatric medicine, using Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital as a focal point. As an example, he cites the arrival in Spokane last fall of two genetics researchers who were recruited by Sacred Heart Medical Center and Washington State University. One of the researchers, Dr. Bassem Bejjani, is a pediatrician who investigates the molecular genetics of hereditary eye diseases. The other, Lisa Shaffer, focuses her research on chromosomal causes of developmental disabilities. Both now work for specialized laboratories at Sacred Heart Medical Center, but Gilene says their presence will allow us to do a lot more in pediatric research as well.


In the future, As we recruit physicians, research is very important, Gilene says, adding that it likely will take several years to build the hospitals pediatric-research programs.


Gilene also would like to emulate the Cincinnati hospitals emphasis on spreading pediatric health care throughout the region. Cincinnati Childrens operates 18 satellite clinics in three states, which range in scope from outpatient centers to pediatric urgent-care clinics to services that are provided in schools, a hospital spokeswoman there says.


Gilene says Cincinnati Childrens had a fantastic strategy in serving the community, and that he expects to develop satellite operations through Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital as well. Currently, Sacred Heart has a pediatric clinicwhere specialists travel to see patients on a weekly or monthly basisin Kennewick, Wash., and physicians associated with the hospital also see patients at various sites in a handful of other cities. As for future satellite operations, Gilene says the hospital is working to learn what various communities need.


Experience overseeing change


A certified public accountant by training, Gilene started at Cincinnati Childrens in 1985 as an internal auditor, and rose through the ranks. When he left, he was vice president of the hospital and chief operating officer of one of its operating divisions, Child Health Services.


Tony Helton, executive director of patient financial services at Cincinnati Childrens, says he worked for Gilene for about five years and found him to be a good, strong leaderan extremely intelligent man.


As a senior manager, Gilene shared in decision-making for the entire organization, Helton says. That included overseeing major construction projects, Gilene says: Cincinnati Childrens underwent a $140 million expansion during his tenure there.


Says Helton, He would be very comfortable in an environment of great change and growth.


Michael Wilson, president of Sacred Heart Medical Center, says Gilene was chosen for the job here because he had the right experience, but even more importantly, he had the right attitude.


Hes someone who really had the enthusiasm as well as the knowledge and background to put together a childrens hospital, Wilson says.


Visual banquet


Right now, Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital is a noisy construction zone on one side of the main hospital and on the other side, a foundation rising from the dirt, but Gilene is animated as he describes how the first phase of the project will look when it opens in September.


A childrens hospital is different from an adult facility, he says, not only in people and programs but also in environment.


To Gilene, the job of a childrens hospital is to return sick kids to their normal routineplayas quickly as possible, and he says a hospitals dcor and approach to its patients can speed that return.


Thats why the two new floors that are being built atop Sacred Hearts east wing include a climbing toy shaped like a tugboat, a Swiss-cheese wall in a childrens waiting area, and a visual banquet of colors and patterns. The inpatient rooms on the pediatric oncology floor are large and airy, and their entrances are painted in different bright colors to give the impression of a row of beach cabanas. The oncology floor also features a garden terrace so that patients and their families can sit in the sun or touch the snow.


About a quarter of the 70,000 square feet of new construction on the east wing is devoted to families, because the hospital recognizes that extended family and friends are so important when a child is sick or injured, Gilene says.


Family spaces will include a supervised playroom for patients siblings, to help ease the hours they must spend at the hospital, and laundry and kitchen facilities so that parents dont have to leave their children for long periods while they take care of such necessities. In addition, there will be a skill lab, where hospital staff can teach families how to use medical equipment at home, a teen lounge with Internet access, and plenty of areas where families can rest, talk, and reflect.


The east addition includes inpatient and outpatient pediatric oncology programs, which Sacred Heart hasnt offered on that scale in the past, as well as new specialty outpatient clinics and some offices. The hospitals west wing, which is expected to open in late 2004, will include a neonatal intensive care unit and a pediatric surgery center, although most of that wing will be devoted to adult surgical suites and a womens health center.


Both of those wings will connect via skywalks to the third floor of Sacred Hearts main tower, which houses the bulk of its current pediatric services and will continue to do so in the future, Gilene says. Plans are being made to redecorate that space to tie it in with the newly constructed space, he says. In 2005, Sacred Heart will create a separate lobby for the childrens hospital in the main tower.


The entire construction project, including the east-wing expansion and west-wing construction, plus renovation of other space in Sacred Hearts South Hill complex, is estimated to cost about $131 million.


Gilene says future projects related to the childrens hospitalsuch as, potentially, a pediatrics emergency roomcould add another $5 million to $10 million to the childrens hospitals estimated $40 million cost.


He believes, however, that providing specialty care to kids is a worthy goal.


A childrens hospital is different, Gilene says. Kids are not small adults.