Sunrise ready to expand

Children's Hospital to add 60 beds in a $75-million project

Sunrise Children's Hospital is ringing in the New Year with a $75 million expansion. Construction has already begun on the five-phase, five-story expansion that will add 60 pediatric beds and expand services that the hospital hopes to offer residents.

A. Allan Stipe, chief executive officer of Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, said the project, which is expected to take three years, will bring Sunrise up to par or even surpass some of the top children's facilities in the country in terms of comprehensive services.

"The pediatric outpatient center will give us dedicated space we need," Stipe said. "There's some nice expansions for outpatients particularly. Before, in terms of dialysis, there was not a service for kids, so that's a new edition. A lot of what we're seeing in this expansion is service amenities."

The expansion on the first floor of the medical center will broaden the Pediatric Outpatient Center, offering dialysis, infusion, bone marrow aspiration, even chemotherapy. The second floor will offer 18 additional beds in the Sunrise Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit's Level III area.

"A lot of what we're doing is building out the spaces," Stipe said. "We'd like to have supporting space for families."

The third floor will offer an increase in postpartum and maternal special care beds, bringing the combined number up to 65. Stipe said that particular increase will appropriate more space for those with sensitive pregnancies, both before and after delivery.

"It gives some special care for moms who are requiring it before delivery and for those high-risk pregnancy patients," Stipe said.

Perhaps one of the best amenities the expansion will create is more privacy for families of children who must stay at the hospital for a prolonged period of time and services that will aid parents who don't want to leave their sides.

"Since pediatrics will add private rooms, we'll be able to support families so they can stay with their children," Stipe said. "There will also be laundry services, showers and dining for them."

Until the facility will be completed, the hospital will shift departments from old place to new, until construction is completed. No facilities will be shut down during the different addition processes. There will also not be any parking restrictions or removal as a result of the changes.

"We've acquired a piece of land south of the hospital," he said. "We also have a south garage that's directly accessible near the emergency parking lot. We're using it right now for some staging."

Stipe believes the new amenities will draw patients from all over southern Nevada.

"It'll be a magnet to draw additional patients to the hospital," Stipe said. "There have been demands on the expansion for pediatric beds, so it's timely and it's going to meet some needs for pediatric patients. This season we've got a widespread flu bug that's affecting many people. I wish it was open already."


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