Hospital expanding to serve needs of Arizona's fast-growing pediatric population

For more than 25 years, Phoenix Children's Hospital has provided hope, healing, and the most highly specialized pediatric healthcare to children and families. Today, the Hospital has grown to become one of the 10 largest children's hospitals in the country, with more than 300 staffed beds, 12,000 admissions, and 165,000 outpatient visits annually.

In the next 25 years, the number of children living in the Phoenix is expected to increase to as many as 1.7 million kids. This explosive population growth will stretch the Hospital's capacity for both space and service. 

Quite simply, our community is growing.  So Phoenix Children's has made a commitment to grow along with it.

The Hospital recently broke ground on a campus expansion that will double its size and capacity. The vision for this new Phoenix Children's Hospital is to enhance clinical programs, increase overall capacity and provide our unique, kid-friendly brand of family-centered care to a growing number of children and their families. The centerpiece of this expansion is a new, 11-story patient hospital tower with all-private patient rooms, expanded diagnostic and treatment facilities, state-of-the-art surgical suites, and expansive clinic space for outpatient services. .

While construction on the new hospital is underway, the existing building will be remodeled to keep up with modern-day demands. And all of the buildings on the Thomas campus will be designed in keeping with the Hospital's signature kid-friendly colors. All Phase One additions are scheduled to be complete by 2012.  By renovating in phases, we'll do all this and more without ever shutting our doors or compromising the level of service that this community has come to expect from Phoenix Children's Hospital.

While we are improving the physical space at Phoenix Children's, we are also recruiting even more of the best and brightest pediatric specialists from around the country to join our growing team.  Expanding our team of medical providers allows Phoenix Children's to build new programs and enhance existing ones, such as our five Centers of Excellence, which provide the very best care available for serious childhood conditions. These include:

1. The Children's Heart Center, which currently conducts more than 400 heart surgeries each year;
2. The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, the largest pediatric cancer program in Arizona;
3. The Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), one of the largest and most technologically advanced in the nation, with beds on the campus of Banner Good Samaritan as well as on the Hospital's main campus;.
4. The Children's Neuroscience Institute, which has the state's first kids-only epilepsy program; and
5. The Center for Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, a statewide referral center for pediatric and adolescent bone and joint problems, which recently launched a pediatric sports medicine program to serve the needs of children and adolescents with bone, joint, spine, and hip injuries; and
6. The state's first Level 1 Trauma Center exclusively for children.

Phoenix Children's is also building Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centers closer to home for patients and families in East Mesa, North Phoenix, and the West Valley. The centers are designed to complement pediatric services in these communities with comprehensive pediatric sub-specialty care on weekdays and urgent care in the evenings and on weekends. The first 30,000-square-foot clinic, north of U.S. 60 at Southern Avenue and Higley Road in Mesa, is already open.. The second clinic, in the West Valley and Avondale and McDowell Roads, breaks ground soon.

Phoenix Children's vision for the future is to be recognized as Arizona's source for superior care of sick or injured children, for advanced education for health providers; and for innovation, information, and influence in the promotion of child health.