Medical School News
Breaking new ground in cures and care for kids
With child- and adult-sized shovels in hand, children and representatives from the University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, and state and local government broke ground last summer for a new, state-of-the-art facility for University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Fairview.
The June 18 groundbreaking ceremony marked the start of construction on the new hospital building, scheduled to open in 2011.
The new facility will unite pediatric and maternal services—currently on two campuses—in one family-friendly location. It also will house some of the country’s leading clinical programs in such areas as pediatric organ transplantation, blood and marrow transplantation, cancer treatment, and heart surgery.
Plans call for a “green” building that will incorporate an environmentally sensitive design, eco-friendly materials, and green spaces, such as a healing garden. Hospital leaders hope to achieve a silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation, a nationally accepted standard for green and sustainable buildings.
The new hospital will also be “lean,” meaning that it’s designed to maximize value for patients and their families by reducing errors, waste, waiting time, and unnecessary transport.
The goal: To provide the highest-quality experience for children and their families in an environment of hope and healing.
“This new building will be the perfect setting for our academic children’s hospital to carry out our threefold mission of research and discovery, teaching and learning, and outreach and public service—making it a center of pediatric health for Minnesota’s children and families,” says University President Robert Bruininks, Ph.D.
