PHOENIX — Plans are well under way to expand hospitals that care for sick and injured children in the Phoenix area. But hospital officials at Phoenix Children's Hospital and Banner Children's Hospital in Mesa say that despite the expansion, there aren't enough beds to care for Maricopa County's children.
Chicago has five children's hospitals and Los Angeles has four, said Dr. Jeff Lobas, chief medical officer at Banner Children's Hospital at Banner Desert Medical Center.
"When you start looking at it from that perspective, a city the size of Phoenix probably needs three or four. One needs only to look at the peak flu season every year to see how strained the Valley's pediatric care can be."
Phoenix Children's Hospital has unveiled plans for a $588 million project that will increase beds from 299 to 632 by 2012. The new central Phoenix campus is just one part of the hospital's expansion. Phoenix Children's Hospital also opened a 30,000-square-foot pediatric urgent-care center in Mesa in December, and the hospital plans similar centers in other areas of metro Phoenix.
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Phoenix Children's is Arizona's largest pediatric hospital and the metro area's only stand-alone children's hospital.
Banner says its $350 million expansion will include a seven-story children's-hospital tower set to open in late 2009 and a neonatal intensive-care unit that is designed to handle complex cases, such as multiple infant births. The expansion will increase the hospital's beds from 137 to 248.
The tower is designed to support additional floors as population growth demands.
"There are enough kids to go around and then some," said Rhonda Anderson, interim CEO of Banner Children's Hospital and Banner Desert Medical Center, as well as Banner Health's administrator for pediatric services. "We don't have enough beds between the two of us to meet demand for services."
