Cardon Children's opens 7-story tower

Cardon Children's Medical Center is off to a smooth start after all of its grand-opening fanfare on Monday.

Cardon Children's previously was located inside Banner Desert Medical Center but now has its own tower. Banner Health's $356 million project allows the children's hospital to expand from 145 to 248 beds.

"All the pre-planning really paid off," said Rhonda Anderson, Cardon Children's pediatric administrator. "We had a command center and we thought we might need to keep it open overnight (on Monday) just to be safe, but everything was going so well so we closed it at 5 p.m. All of our systems worked. We had tested everything ahead of time, but you just never know."

The tower also includes a new, enlarged pediatric emergency room and units for pediatric rehabilitation, radiology, cancer care, intensive care and neonatal intensive care. In addition, the facility includes six operating rooms and 25 private, child-friendly preoperative and postoperative rooms.

"We had a lot of admissions during the night in the new facility and we were in a new emergency department and a new operating room, and everything went really well," Anderson said.

Monday's opening was commemorated by a parade of young patients, local dignitaries, cheerleaders and sports mascots. Isaac Bunker, a Mesa High School junior, was among the patients in the parade. He was admitted to Cardon Children's late last week after a cyst was discovered inside his stomach tissue. This lead to abdominal surgery in which a portion of his large intestine was removed along with his appendix.

"It was pretty amazing," Bunker said of the opening. "This has a really great view, and we can watch movies and get on the Internet. It's all good."

The children's hospital's patient volume is constantly shifting with new admissions around the clock, Anderson said.

"We were planning all weekend, making sure we knew when each child went (to the new tower), and then we had 15 admissions during the middle of the night, so we had to replan (Monday) morning to make sure that we were able to add those children."

Cardon Children's includes 225 pediatric physicians and subspecialists, as well as hundreds of nurses, technologists, aides, therapists and volunteers.

"We'll just continue to grow and develop our treatment," Anderson said. "We've got all the specialties from a physician and other clinician perspective."

Response from the community has been positive, she said. The public was invited to tour the new hospital last month.

"During the community tours ... they said we captured everything they asked us to capture," she said.

"This is a great day for Mesa, a great day for the East Valley and a great day for children," said Mesa Mayor Scott Smith. "Anytime you can create a world-class facility with world-class services, the kids and families win because they don't have to travel to get this level of service. They can get it right here near home and without having to go to a different state or a different city."

The first two floors of a second seven-story tower at Cardon Children's already have been constructed. No timeline has been established for the completion of the second tower.