This story was originally published by the Ledger-Enquirer.
Walking up the hill on 19th Street in Columbus, passersby can see barriers and hear hammering and drilling as construction crews work on the new Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital.
Piedmont Columbus Regional announced plans to transform the former Doctors Hospital building into a freestanding children’s hospital in March 2023 after receiving a donation from Bettye and Cecil Cheves.
Now a year later, officials pulled out the hard hats to offer a glimpse of the project after it began construction last August.
Credit: Mike Haskey
Credit: Mike Haskey
The children’s hospital will be the only one of its kind in the region.
Its presence will help parents who have to make difficult decisions about staying with their sick children in an Atlanta hospital or coming back to the Columbus area to take care of someone at home, Jonetta Chestnut, director of nursing for women and children services, said.
“We can say ‘and’,” Chestnut said. “I can get good care here and take care of my family that is here at home.”
Inside the Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital
The children’s hospital will be 77,137 square feet in total with 30 beds and 26 rooms. Construction is estimated to be completed this fall.
Project manager Heidi Harris began the tour on the fifth floor, which will house the hospital’s Pediatric Inpatient Unit.
Credit: Mike Haskey
Credit: Mike Haskey
There are 26 patient rooms on the floor, including five intensive care units and six intermediate care units. Four sibling rooms are also located on the floor. If siblings are admitted, Harris said, parents won’t have to divide their time between different rooms.
Past a nurses station that serves all of the patient care rooms, the tour moved to another wing of the floor that includes a family room, laundry services, an exam room and a playroom.
In the middle of the playroom is a functional column that will eventually be disguised as a tree and become a feature in the space.
Credit: Piedmont Columbus Regional
Credit: Piedmont Columbus Regional
One short elevator ride later, Harris stepped out into the second floor that holds support staff offices and an enclosed connection corridor from the Midtown Campus Conference Center, through the Professional Tower to the children’s hospital.
This connection is meant to connect the hospitals for patient transport.
“We’ll be bringing patients admitted through our pediatric emergency department through that connector into the children’s hospital campus,” Harris said.
Down on the ground floor is the main entrance. This floor houses an outdoor garden, an interactive video wall, a donor wall, history wall and walking path running from patient discharge up to the Midtown Campus.
Near the donor wall in the main entrance, there will also be a display recognizing more than 100 local and national organizations partnering with the Children’s Miracle Network.
“We’re super excited to have this in the new children’s hospital because we don’t have it currently,” said Jessie Brown, a Children’s Miracle Network officer.
Credit: Mike Haskey
Credit: Mike Haskey
The tour concluded in a multipurpose activity room on the first floor, which will serve as a conference and play area. There will be four different children’s activities along a wall in the room behind barn doors that will be open and closed as needed.
Throughout the hospital, visitors will see graphics and artwork from the Denver-based company NINE dot ARTS, Harris said. A donor is also donating pieces of local, original artwork.
“Our theme is the river,” she said. “And it’s a very loose theme, but you’ll see as you go through the main entrance it starts with the river banks on the walls and then goes through with all the animals you’ll expect to see on the Columbus riverbanks.”
Supported by philanthropy
The tour was part of Piedmont Columbus Regional’s recognition of Children’s Miracle Network’s Children’s Hospital Week. It is a time to celebrate children’s hospitals across the country, said Aline Lassiter, executive director of philanthropy, community outreach and volunteers.
“There are 170 children’s hospitals that are part of the Children’s Miracle Network of hospitals caring for children in their communities at home where they need it,” Lassiter said.
Donors’ generosity is responsible for the creation of the Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital, she said, ensuring pediatric patients can have care in Columbus rather than traveling to Atlanta.
“We’ve raised over $21 million so far to support this project and enable us to have these programs inside this facility,” Lassiter said.
The children’s hospital is the only one in the Piedmont system of 22 hospitals across Georgia.
“I’m grateful to everyone who’s helped make that possible,” she said. “But I can’t say enough about the nurses, the staff, who dedicate their day, every day, to the children here in our community.”
Credit: Ledger-Enquirer
Credit: Ledger-Enquirer
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