After four years, Duke Children’s Hospital has a new home in the 11-story Duke Central Tower.
Patients have already moved into the tower after its Thursday opening. The renovated Duke Children’s Hospital, located on the first four floors, aims to provide more care and comfort for children under treatment and their families.
“We believe that we have extraordinary care that we deliver every single day, and now we have an extraordinary space to deliver it in,” said Ann Reed, chair of the department of pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief at Duke Children’s Hospital.
Construction on the $265 million project began in 2017, with the new space housing 350 beds.
“The Duke Central Tower is an investment in the actualization of our values,” said Mary Martin, chief operating officer of Duke University Hospital, in a press release.
Many children undergoing treatment must stay in the hospital for 30 days or more. A focus on prioritizing patients’ physical and mental recovery led to the restructuring of the Children’s Hospital to now be able to accomodate families for up to several months. Previously, they could only stay for a couple days.
“The space allows for families to be a part of the recovery and the care,” Reed told The Chronicle. “It’s so much for children in recovery from illness and injury to have family and support around them.”
Some of the notable improvements include patient rooms that average twice the size of previous ones, improved in-house pharmacy service and two pediatric cardiac catheterization labs. Furniture now transitions into beds for family members and there are designated family zones and children’s activity rooms.
Duke North, the previous campus to house the Children’s Hospital, was constructed in 1930. While additions to the previous Duke Children’s continued, many believed it was time for a complete overhaul.
“We really needed to make an upgrade in terms of the technology and advancements in medicine,” Martin said. “This steps up the level of care for our patients.”
Many of the new facilities in the hospital also came from the hospital’s Patient and Family Council, which provided input from resident families for the design of the rooms.
“That’s where the two-TV idea came from! You may not want to watch Peppa Pig with your child all night,” Martin said.
The possibility of in-room treatment also increases hospital staff efficiency, with care now available at the source without moving patients throughout the hospital.
“For some of these tiny babies, any movement can change the status of how they’re doing. By bringing that care to the room, we believe that we will have a much better process,” Martin said.
The next phase for Duke Children’s Hospital is to begin major renovation on the older Duke North campus in order to further increase patient space throughout Duke Hospital.
As for the new tower, it aims to be a focal point of Duke Hospital for years to come.
“We are proud of this new building and look forward to sharing it with our community,” Martin said in the press release.
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James Cruikshank is a Trinity first-year and a staff reporter for the news department.