Wichita’s Wesley Children’s Hospital officially opens

Wichita’s first hospital dedicated to children officially opened Thursday.

The $28 million project to create Wesley Children’s Hospital started roughly seven years ago.

“What a great day for Wesley. What a great day for Kansas. What a great day for Wichita that we can finally complete this project,” said Allen Poston, Wesley Healthcare’s vice president for marketing and public relations.

The plan is to keep Wichita-area families from having to travel out of town for pediatric services.

Here are five things you need to know about the new hospital:

▪ It will have 31 pediatric unit beds and 15 in intensive care.

▪ It will be staffed by 96 full-time, part-time and PRN staff members.

▪ There are 20 sub-specialties offered at the hospital, including cardiology, endocrinology, surgery, critical care and orthopedics.

▪ It is the only hospital in Wichita to offer 24/7 in-hospital pediatric intensive care for pediatric patients. It has two board-certified pediatric surgeons.

▪ The hospital has 35 miles of networking cable, 25 tons of steel, 4,500 ceiling tiles and 150 high LED lights.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 8:59 PM with the headline "Wichita’s Wesley Children’s Hospital officially opens."