Work Continues on Children’s Hospital
BALTIMORE — When work is finally completed on the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center at John Hopkins Children’s Hospital in Baltimore, the result will be a blend of technological advances and a family-friendly environment aimed at putting ailing children — and their parents — at ease.
The 12-story children’s tower is part of the $994 million, 1.6 million-square foot adult critical care and cardiovascular tower expansion scheduled to open 2012. The expansion project is a ten-year vision, and one of the largest construction projects of any hospital in the country.
The 56,000 square-foot tower will have two expansive medical/surgical patient floors each, divided by elevator banks, and two units with a minimum of 20 beds at each end, having a total of 205 private inpatient rooms. Infants will be cared for on the south end of the ninth floor while toddlers will be on the north side. On the floor above, school-age children will be cared for on the south side, while adolescents will be on the north side of the tenth floor. Nurses remain close to their patients in alcoves just outside the rooms.
The new building will have its own dedicated radiology suite adjoining pediatric operating rooms on the 4th floor, minimizing floor travel for patients and optimizing access to imaging for surgeons in the operating room and intensivists in the pediatric intensive care unit.
“Our proximity will change the patient and family experience and allow us to be more responsive,” says pediatric radiologist Jane Benson. “All of our equipment will be child-centered.”
Doctors’ will maintain patient charts on flat-screen monitors in patients’ rooms in the neonatal intensive care unit and PICU, keeping them in close proximity to families. Gases and electrical, medical and communication equipment are at the ready in the PICU via ceiling-mounted booms, while all other rooms house that equipment in the headwall. All rooms are private and spacious enough to accommodate medical equipment and changing levels of care, allowing children to remain in the same room throughout the stay. Scattered conference rooms provide for parent consultations and staff, resident and fellow education. Large, public waiting areas near the elevators provide additional respite for visiting families.
Pediatric patients will have a variety of retreats, including “Sara’s Garden,” a tranquil garden funded by the Wilhide family in memory of their daughter Sara who was born with a heart condition and was treated at the Hopkins Children’s Hospital before she died at age three; and an enclosed playroom on the building’s top two levels, dubbed “The Great Escape,” where children can leave worries behind and delight in a sunlit expanse of “nature” with a simulated beach and a garden alongside an actual playground.