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Children's can't grow up, has to move out
Zoning restrictions force move to Aurora
By Megan Sheesley
msheesle@mscd.edu

Photo by Molly Kreck • kreck@mscd.edu Jack Hardison, age 4, talks to the medical staff at Children’s Hospital in Denver. He injured his hand under a treadmill and his family traveled from Colorado Springs for treatment at this facility, which will be moving to Aurora next year.

The Children’s Hospital in Denver will step forward by moving in fall 2007 to a new state-of-the-art facility on the Fitzsimons campus to continue its growing network of pediatric health care services.

The current hospital, located at 19th Street and Park Avenue West in Denver, is simply too small for a rapidly growing population.

The city is packed full of buildings and residential neighborhoods, so the options of expanding and building up were ruled out due to zoning laws.

The Children’s Hospital’s board of directors chose the Fitzsimons Medical Center site at 17th Street and East Colfax Avenue in Aurora for the relocation of the hospital’s main campus. The new hospital will allow specialists and researchers to locate resources in a single location for the first time.

Jerrod Milton, director of Campus Transitions, has been planning the relocation to a new facility since 2000. Milton, who has been with The Children’s Hospital for 15 years and who has a background in clinical pharmacy and business, was chosen to lead the transition between the two hospitals.

“The environment of the new hospital has been designed to be the most healing, one-of-a-kind hospital for children, with ample natural lighting and open spaces creating a warm, comforting interior experience,” Milton said. ”The artwork and interior design palette chosen throughout the new facility will be marvelous, if not captivating, to experience.”

The new hospital will be one of the region’s most vibrant and technologically advanced facilities.

The new facility will span over 1.44 million square feet. Amenities will include a kids-only area with wireless Internet access, a chapel, additional room to accommodate a comfortable parent overnight stay, laundry facilities and many other family and patient amenities, including room service.

With less than 400 days before the new facility opens, there is still plenty of work to be done. The hospital’s move-in date has been set tentatively for Sept. 30, 2007.

The team Milton is leading plans to move inpatients in a day to the new location, with safety being the utmost concern. The staff at Children’s is carefully planning the patient move, and will conduct a mock move in early 2007 to ensure a safe and smooth transition.

The Children’s Hospital will not be the only new kid on the block. The Ronald McDonald House — a hospitality facility catering to patients and families from out of town with extended stay requirements — will build an additional facility about three miles from the new hospital to continue its services with Children’s families.

Building a new state-of-the-art hospital comes with a significant cost. The Children’s Hospital project will cost nearly $534 million.

Initiated to fund a significant portion of the new hospital, the Imagine the Miracles campaign is the largest and most successful capital-fundraising campaign in the Denver area to date.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation is well on its way toward achieving the $250 million goal it set forth to help fund the new hospital. The balance will be funded primarily from bond revenue and hospital reserves.

One particular benefactor, the Scottish Rite Foundation of Denver, has been a good friend to the Children’s community since 1953. Continuing its tradition of donations to Children’s, the Masonic chapter has granted $150,000 to the goal of $250 million.

However, this is not all the foundation has provided to the children of Colorado. Over the past 59 years, it has donated $20 million to speech pathology clinics in Colorado, with Children’s the largest beneficiary.

“Between now and Sept. 30, 2007, our total grant to Children’s Hospital will be over $1.3 million,” said Vernon Ingraham, executive secretary of the foundation.

This grant money will help fund the new speech pathology clinic at Children’s.

With the new hospital neighboring the University of Colorado Hospital and the new University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center, the Fitzsimons campus will ultimately house some of the world’s best specialists and researchers, serving both the pediatric and adult community.

Children’s is currently ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the nation specializing in pediatric care.