Congenital disorders
Phoenix Children’s cuts ribbon on Arrowhead campus
Nov
The ribbon was cut for the Phoenix Children’s Specialty Care Arrowhead Campus by Dylan McQueen and Phoenix Children’s President and CEO Robert Meyer on Nov. 8. (Phoenix Children’s/Submitted)
Phoenix Children’s Hospital recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new specialty care Arrowhead Campus.
The campus has a 45,000-square-foot clinic that offers care in more than two dozen high-demand pediatric subspecialties including psychology, neuropsychology, ENT and orthopedics.
“With today’s grand opening, we take another step forward in our work to improve access to high quality, pediatric specific health care for children and families in the Northwest Valley,” said Robert Meyer, president and CEO of Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Though the ribbon was cut on Nov. 8, the clinic officially began serving families on Nov. 15, and it is only the first part of the campus’ full opening, which includes a full three-story pediatric hospital opening next summer. The hospital as a whole is 175,000 square feet and will include inpatient care, an emergency department, a surgery center and a full suite of imaging services.
The Arrowhead Campus represents an investment of $195 million and more than 400 jobs in Glendale.
“Here in the West Valley, the number of children is expected to grow from 400,000 today to 500,000 in 2030. With that in mind, architectural plans for the Arrowhead campus were designed to accommodate future growth as community needs arise,” Meyer said.
Meyer added that he signed the purchase orders to build out the rest of the inpatient part of the facility, as 24 inpatient beds, according to Meyer, were too conservative, so another 24 will be constructed.
It is expected that there will be 72,000 patient visits each year; however, Meyer thinks that is low and that significantly more children will be seen.
An important part of the new Arrowhead campus is the sleep ceter that it has. Dr. Rupali Drewek is the medical director of the sleep disorders program and emphasized the importance of good sleep, as it has a profound impact on overall health and well-being.
The campus will include a sleep center, which the medical director for sleep disorder programs, Dr. Rupali Drewek, emphasized is extremely important, as good sleep has a profound impact on overall health and well-being.
“Until now, many families face the challenge of having to travel long distances to get sleep studies as well as other diagnostic testing,” Drewek said. “Now, with the introduction of our new state-of-the-art sleep lab here in Arrowhead, we’ve taken a significant step toward bringing those services much closer to home.”
The goal of the Arrowhead campus and really all Phoenix Children’s campuses, Meyer emphasized, is to distribute the different services throughout the Valley.
Melissa McQueen and her family were in attendance at the opening, and Melissa spoke on the difference this campus will make not only in their family, but to other families in the area.
Melissa McQueen and her family were there to emphasize how important this campus and its location is to families like hers.
Her son, Dylan, was born with dilated cardiomyopathy which is a life-threatening congenital heart disease that meant his heart couldn’t pump blood to the rest of his body. Due to the fact that Phoenix Children’s Hospital had not begun its transplant program, the McQueens had to travel to Texas in order for Dylan to receive his heart transplant at 8 months, which is also when he received his nickname of “lighting” to go along with his last name McQueen.
Following his transplant, Melissa and her husband Brandon spent days in a hospital clinic or living inpatient at Phoenix Children’s Hospital with Dylan, which took time away from their other children and had a major impact on their family.
“It would have been life altering to be able to see his specialist right here at this clinic, as he had multiple appointments every week,” McQueen said.
Melissa emphasized that there have been multiple situations where Dylan was in a critical situation and an over 40-minute drive was not ideal. Knowing that there are specialists and practitioners just 10 minutes away is so much nicer.
“It’s hard to overstate the difference that it will make to have options closer to home,” Melissa said. “I know it was really life changing for our family and so many others in the West Valley.”
The full pediatric hospital opening next summer will aid in the balancing out issue of where Phoenix Children’s is growing as well as take stress off the main campus, according to Meyer. He emphasized that the main campus is running out of ICU beds and that the growth there is very strong.
“So, I think we’re going to see patients who have traditionally gone to Thomas will be coming here for both ambulatory but also inpatient care,” Meyer said.
Meyer is hoping for continued growth in the future not only for the Arrowhead Campus but for Phoenix Children’s in general. Citing the growth to 500,000 kids in 2030, Meyer talked about how the company is currently trying to, and is very close to, acquire land in Surprise in order to follow the growth in young families there.
The organization will also be looking at Buckeye where the company received a delegation of 17 acres of land from a developer that abuts the proposed state route 30 expansion. Meyer emphasized that that is in the future and requires a lot of thought and plans before moving forward but that it will be a site for something he’s just currently not sure what.
The Avondale campus, Meyer noted, with its position as well as the amount of land there has the potential to grow into a hospital that would be a similar size to the one in Arrowhead.
Meyer wants everyone to know that the quality of physicians, programs and specialties are equal to those at the main campus off of Thomas.
“You can be very comfortable coming here with the same pediatric emergency medicine trained, doctors will be staffing this ED as downtown, the specialty cover, the surgical coverage and all that is the same,” Meyer said.
