[Johnny Ryall]

Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center project evolves from vision into a reality
the Commercial Appeal | By Toby Sells

Two years ago today, hundreds gathered on a cold, windy Valentine's Day to imagine a new Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. Just beyond the ceremonial groundbreaking stood the broken hulk of what was the Memphis Mental Health Institute. The old building, being demolished, was a gnarled mess of tangled rebar and busted concrete. That building now remains only in pictures. The new Le Bonheur has been mostly realized. But seeing the final product, scheduled for a June delivery, still takes some imagination.

On a recent interior tour of the construction site, Dave Rosenbaum, vice president of building projects for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Inc., pointed at unfinished and often-cluttered spaces where rooms, roads, medical departments, patients and families "will be." For example, the new hospital's entrance will be a tree-lined, two-lane drive with a grassy median that will splay south from the new hospital and connect to Adams Avenue. But two-thirds of the old hospital will have to be torn down before that can happen. From the big door that will be the main entrance, Rosenbaum pointed one way to where a large cafeteria will be and another to the future laboratories. On a floor above, he pointed to a wide, empty shaft that runs 12 stories -- from the helipad atop the hospital to the emergency department on the bottom. It will be the trauma elevator. "I told them they can get everything they need on there except the helicopter," Rosenbaum joked, noting the elevator can haul 6,000 pounds. He pointed to what will be a movie theater that will show newly released films. He pointed to a spiritual care area, with prayer rooms for all faiths, including east-facing ones for Muslims. He pointed to a large steel beam in a ceiling that will hold an interoperative MRI so surgeons can see internal pictures of the patients as they work on them. He pointed to a family-training center where new parents can learn to care for their babies before they leave the hospital. He pointed to nurses' stations connected directly to patients' rooms so they can be closer to those in their care. He pointed to two, glass-walled neonatal intensive care unit rooms, fused together so one parent can watch twins.

Of course, real work fuels the imagination. About 700 workers toil at the new Le Bonheur site every day. "If you figure there's 2,100 hours in a working year, then every three days, we're doing a man-year's worth of work," he said. A handful of those on the job aren't just building a hospital, they're building new lives. Skanksa USA, the contractor building the hospital, teamed with Memphis-based Lighthouse Ministries to help those men finish the 12 steps to beating drug addiction. "I had a little trepidation when they first got started," admitted Skanksa project executive Mike Rayburn. "But they're on a tight schedule and are monitored closely by a foreman so there's little chance for shenanigans." Some of the workers have graduated from the program and have gone on to work for subcontractors working on the new Le Bonheur, he said. "Every one of those guys deserves a chance," Rayburn said.

While the construction jobs will go away once Le Bonheur's ribbon is cut, the hospital is either hiring or training 170 new staff members to cover patient volumes brought by the new space. The number of new employees will continue to grow as the hospital adds more programs, Le Bonheur CEO Meri Armour said, adding that the jobs will help keep the Memphis community strong but will also serve a greater purpose. "Every pregnant woman and every kid in the Memphis area is the responsibility of Le Bonheur," Armour said. "We have kept them safe for many years and the new hospital is a new way we can continue to advocate for them."

Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
Cost: $340 million
Size: 640,000 square feet.
Plan for 2011: Renovation to current facility and parking garage