We're Growing Again!

Le Bonheur Children’s recently broke ground on the largest building expansion since the current hospital facility opened in 2010. The four-story, $95.4-million addition will allow Le Bonheur to continue on a sustainable, long-term growth trajectory. The expansion includes enlarging the cardiovascular and neonatal floors, in addition to the surgery recovery area and main floor.

“I am thrilled to announce this major Le Bonheur expansion. This addition will help us make a generational difference in the care provided to children across the country and beyond,” said Le Bonheur President Michael Wiggins, DBA, FACHE. “This kind of momentum will allow Le Bonheur to continue attracting and retaining the best physicians and caregivers to achieve our mission of providing excellent health care for children, teaching the next generation of pediatric experts, pursuing scientific discovery and serving children in their communities. It will have an impact for decades to come.”

The additional infrastructure will support an expansion of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) bringing 14 new beds to the existing 60-bed unit and will include eight additional surgery recovery bays. Le Bonheur will also convert 12 existing beds to critical care use immediately to ease capacity needs during construction.

The expansion will also bring additional beds to the Heart Institute to create a 31-bed dedicated Cardiovascular Unit by adding 10 additional Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit beds to the existing 10-bed unit and creating room for an 11 bed step-down cardiac unit. A new MRI-guided catheterization lab will be added for a total of three catheterization labs.