Wesley to start work on Children’s Hospital in fall (VIDEO)

Wesley Medical Center unveiled its Children’s Hospital logo at a groundbreaking event Wednesday.

It was symbolic, with toy hammers and cardboard bricks, because the $28 million project includes renovation of existing pediatric units and building facade rather than a full demolition or build. And the renovation won’t start until around September.

Bill Voloch, CEO of Wesley; Lavonta Williams, Wichita City Council member; Stephanie Kuhlman, pediatrics medical director for Wesley; and Tripp Owings, chief operating officer for the Children’s Hospital, used the toy hammers and wore toy hard hats as they knocked over a wall of cardboard bricks to unveil the logo for its first public appearance.

“As we were coming up with logos, one of the things we were trying to accomplish was a sign of children rising up above their challenges,” Voloch said. The new emblem features an abstract figure of a child being lifted by a balloon in the form of Wesley’s signature “W.”

Elected officials, Wesley administrators, board members, hospital staff members and other community members attended the groundbreaking.

The pediatric unit and pediatric intensive care unit are on the east side of the Wesley campus. For the most part, the layout of the units will stay the same after the remodel.

The pediatric unit will have 30 rooms, the same number as in the current facility, but the intensive care unit will gain three beds from its current 12-bed layout.

Right now, a hallway of microbiology labs separates the two units. Those labs will move to make room for offices.

During renovations, pediatric patients will move to the fourth floor and pediatric intensive care patients will move to the sixth floor, said Angi Gragg, director of pediatric services at Wesley.

Workers will install a new nurse call system on the fourth and sixth floors before the pediatric patients move in, Gragg said. She expects the call system to be finished by August or September, and renovation would start soon after.

Wesley hopes to finish the project by fall 2016.

Gragg said that after the renovations, each room will have a TV, computer, Xbox, games and a Murphy bed to pull down for family members to spend the night.

In the pediatric intensive care unit, the beds are separated only by curtains. The new renovations will make individual rooms for each patient.

“We have a lot of chaos going on,” said Sarah Shove, unit assistant in pediatric intensive care. “When we don’t have enclosed rooms, everyone knows what’s going on, and that can be rough for the other families.”

Owings, the chief operating officer, focused on the added staff members and care the hospital will attract to Wichita. The hospital has yet to add additional specialty staff members or services that expand what is available in Wichita.

Owings said Wesley hired six physicians, two pediatric cardiologists, three pediatric hospitalists, one pediatric surgeon and one intensivist for the Children’s Hospital. Those hires will enhance Wesley’s current services, officials said.

The space was built in 1979, where the pediatric unit has stayed since it opened.

White-painted brick lines most of the unit’s interior. Tiled ceilings and the muted blue and green color scheme add to the dated look of the pediatric space.

“When they have a comfortable environment, they heal faster,” Owings said.

He added that the updated environment will also help Wesley’s recruitment efforts for staff members.

“This will look state-of-the-art, beautiful, when we’re done,” Voloch, who took over as CEO in May, said as he looked around the waiting area and nurses’ station of the pediatric unit.

Melissa Ramirez, a Childlife coordinator for pediatric surgery who helps children and their families cope with the hospital experience, said “kids just want to play.”

“For a kid to walk in and have a place to play immediately that’s colorful and meant for healing, rather than to just get poked and prodded,” she said, “it can help ease their anxiety.”

Gov. Sam Brownback was supposed to attend the groundbreaking but backed out because of the unprecedented length of this year’s legislative session.

This story was originally published June 10, 2015 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Wesley to start work on Children’s Hospital in fall (VIDEO)."