Remake for Childrens Hospital

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles unveiled plans Saturday for a $300-million replacement hospital, aiming to modernize its Hollywood facility and meet new state seismic standards.

At its annual retreat in Palm Springs, the nonprofit hospital’s board of trustees also formally launched a $500-million capital campaign to raise money for the new inpatient tower, a laboratory research building already under construction, and existing medical programs.

Officials said they already have received pledges and donations of $309.8 million for the campaign, including more than $100 million donated by various members of the board.

The tower will be paid for with $60 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $40 million from current hospital accounts, and $200 million from the capital campaign.

The 280-bed inpatient facility is needed to meet a California requirement that all hospitals be strong enough to remain standing after a major earthquake, officials said.

Other major hospitals in Los Angeles County, including UCLA and Cedars-Sinai medical centers, also have construction projects underway designed to meet the state requirement. Childrens is the largest hospital of its kind in the region and a major national research center.

In the 1994 Northridge quake, 23 hospitals sustained more than $3 billion in damage and were forced to suspend some or all services. Childrens had only minor damage and was fully operational within 12 hours.

Since the late 1990s, Childrens has been engaged in a variety of construction projects, including a surgery center and a research building. After a new underground parking structure is completed, the hospital will tear down its existing parking structure, making room for the tower.

Construction on the inpatient facility -- in a contemporary design with a wall of windows to let in natural light -- is scheduled to begin late next year and be finished by early 2008.

Childrens plans to use this opportunity to improve its amenities, such as children’s play areas and staff and family lounges. Though it won’t add beds, it will replace many of the standard double rooms with singles.

“Hospitals tend to do these things maybe twice a century, and it is that time in our life cycle,” said Walter W. Noce Jr., Childrens president and chief executive. “It’s becoming an increasing challenge to deliver family-centered care, which is our care model, in a facility that’s almost 40 years old now.”

The tower will have seven floors and 460,000 square feet, compared with six stories and 302,000 square feet in the existing inpatient hospital.

Hospital trustees say they are aware that they are finishing their fund-raising during an economic downturn, when many would-be donors have limited their charitable giving.

“I know money is scarce and I know these are difficult times, but I’m still very, very optimistic,” said Marion Anderson, co-chair of the board. “A children’s hospital is a little bit different. It’s a little bit easier to fund-raise for a children’s hospital than an adults’ hospital.”

Anderson and her husband, John, donated $6.5 million toward construction of a $65-million surgical building that opened in May 2001 at the Hollywood complex.

Before giving the go-ahead for the new tower, the board considered retrofitting the existing structure to make it strong enough to withstand a major earthquake. The cost of that work was estimated at nearly $90 million.

“Retrofitting an old building is really a waste of funds,” said Walter B. Rose, co-chair of the board. “We just felt it was the right time and the right circumstances to move forward on a new patient tower.”

Each patient room in the new building will include space for medical equipment, a pull-out bed for a patient’s relative, and a work space equipped for telephones and computers. The tower is being designed by the Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca Partnership.

Some child-friendly touches include designs, such as clouds, on room ceilings so young patients don’t have to stare at white tiles, and play areas where children can learn about their treatment using doll models.

The hospital also will offer more areas where families can go to get away from the bedside.

In the current facility, “we just don’t have the space,” Noce said. “Literally, we have every square inch we’ve got dedicated to a clinical function.”

After the replacement tower is finished, Childrens will convert its current facility into medical offices and outpatient clinics.

Childrens treats more than 55,000 patients in its emergency room and 11,750 in the hospital each year. The 102-year-old institution is affiliated with USC’s Keck School of Medicine.