WICHITA, Kan — Wesley Medical Center leaders and several elected officials helped kick off construction of Wesley’s $28-million children’s hospital with a ceremonial red brick wall “knock down” unveiling the hospital’s new name and brand–Wesley Children’s Hospital.
The branding was unveiled at a ceremony on the current pediatrics floor in which hospital and elected officials broke down a wall, instead of the traditional breaking of ground, to launch the construction project.
“We’ve been talking to our community for a long time about this children’s hospital and what it should look like. Some of the strongest feedback we received was that not everyone likes all the red brick inside and outside our facility,” said Bill Voloch, Wesley’s president and CEO. “Given that this project replaces a lot of that brick with a new, modern exterior, it just seemed fitting to smash down a brick wall to get us started.”
Wesley administration announced the building of the region’s first and only children’s hospital earlier this year, sharing renderings of soon-to-be bright colored lobbies, hallways and patient rooms, as well as promising to recruit additional pediatric specialty physicians for the new hospital in an effort to keep as many pediatric patients as close to home as possible for medical care.
Since the announcement, the hospital has recruited five new pediatric specialists and three new pediatric hospitalists, with many more in various stages of recruitment. Construction has already begun on the pediatrics units’ temporary new homes on the fourth and sixth floors of the hospital’s tower building, including the installation of a new, state-of-the-art nurse call system so patients and families will have the best technology and service, even during the construction process.
A children’s foundation is also being created to help raise and distribute funds to better serve the kids and families served by Wesley Children’s Hospital.
Construction is expected to be complete in the fall of 2016 and includes a new facade on the hospital’s Hillside exterior, with a renovated entrance, lobby and elevators. Additionally, it will include a complete renovation of the pediatric intensive care unit, creating a new, all-private 15-bed PICU. In addition, Wesley’s 30-bed pediatric unit will receive aesthetic and heating and cooling system upgrades. The children’s hospital theme will be extended to other areas of the hospital that may treat pediatric patients, such as the pediatric emergency room and radiology department.
The project contractor is JE Dunn and the architect is Gould Turner Group.
Source: Wesley Medical Center.
