With a $15 million gift from developer Don Diamond and his wife Joan, University Medical Center last week unveiled plans to build what it called Tucson’s first children’s hospital. But there are few who would beg to differ about the claim.
There is no argument the Diamond Children’s Medical Center being built as part of a six-story building already under construction adjacent to UMC will serve a purpose as a highly-specialized children’s medical facility.
 Conceptual rendering of UMC’s Diamond Children’s Medical Center. |
But, for years, rival Tucson Medical Center has promoted its children’s hospital services and just last month was accepted for associate membership into the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, a nationwide network of more than 215 children’s hospitals. This certified that TMC had met the criteria necessary for children’s hospitals.
In 1999, UMC and TMC had talked of jointly building a children’s hospital but those never materialized. Depending on what side of the issue is talking, the other side broke off the discussions.
The first visible sign that the two wouldn’t be working together came in 2001 when TMC opened its pediatric emergency room.
The Diamond Children’s Medical Center is part of a $200 million expansion project on UMC’s main campus, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. It will be unique in Arizona as the only children’s hospital connected to an academic research facility, the University of Arizona’s Steele Children’s Research Center.
"The Steele Center and UMC make an ideal collaboration for building a children’s hospital," said Fayez K. Ghishan, head of the UA Department of Pediatrics and director of the Steele Children’s Research Center. "A children’s hospital connected to an academic research facility provides an integrated system of clinical care, cutting-edge research, and training of the next generation of pediatricians."
In announcing his gift, Diamond said "This children’s hospital will become an enormous asset to Tucson and the region. We’re proud and honored to be associated with the campaign to create it, and we invite all those who value excellence in health care for children to join us."
The cost for the entire center is estimated to be $55 million. UMC officials say they are looking for the remaining $40 million to come from other philanthropic funds.
"The time is right," said Greg Pivirotto, president and CEO of UMC president. "We have spent years planning for a children’s hospital. We have held focus groups with our patients, families and children to get their input into what they would want in a children’s hospital. We have consulted with experts in children’s hospital design to create a truly healing environment. And now, with Tucson’s population exceeding 1 million, it’s time to have a hospital completely devoted to the health care needs of children."
The 100,000 square-foot center, which is scheduled to be completed in spring 2010, will have 116 beds, including 36 beds in a neonatal intensive care unit. There will be 36 private medical/surgery rooms, 20 pediatric intensive care unit rooms, 12 hematology/oncology rooms and six blood and marrow transplant rooms.
The children’s hospital will take up the top three floors of the six story building. An entrance and lobby will separate it from the main UMC facility. It will also have around-the-clock emergency room, pediatric playrooms on each floor and a stage for children to see performances, concerts, graduations or parties, a library and classroom, a healing garden and a meditation room.
Some of those same services were included in TMC’s announcement in
November, when it renamed its children’s hospital and health programs TMC for Children. At the time it said it offered the region’s only children’s emergency center and gastrointestinal laboratory, along with dedicated pediatric surgeons and anesthesiologists and intensive care unit.
TMC for Children has 107 pediatric beds and currently cares for just over half the area’s children, according to Julia Strange, director of communications.
According to state standards, a children’s hospital is a "freestanding entity solely devoted to the care of children." As a result, neither the Diamond Children’s Medical Center or TMC for Children can be called a "children’s hospital." TMC for Children is in a wing of the main hospital, at 5301 E. Grant Road. The Diamond center will share a six-story building with a new trauma center.
"The fact that some of these resources are being brought to the community is a great thing," said TMC’s Strange. "They will be doing some great things that we will never do over here and we feel each has a role in the community. But many of the services we too already have going in the community."
With its attached research component, the UA’s Gisham said "We are not competing with anyone locally. We will be competing with other children’s research hospitals in Boston and Philadelphia. No one in the state will be doing what we do. It is the dream of sick children, faculty, pediatricians and of the Diamond Family. I am bursting with excitement."
Contact Joe Pangburn at jpangburn@azbiz.com or at (520) 295-4259.
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