Libby Larson, Nurture AHM, had the privilege recently to attend the grand opening of Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. ACH is the only pediatric hospital in the state of Arkansas. The project began 5 years ago when the hospital announced a new, 285,000 square foot south wing was to be added on, to coincide with ACH's centennial celebrations. It created an additional 54 inpatient beds, expanding the hospital's pediatric heart center and neonatal intensive care unit and increasing the total bed availability to 370.  Also included in the new $115 million wing are: new Hematology-Oncology and Infant Toddler units, new Emergency Department with orthopedic suite, decontamination unit and dedicated trauma rooms, expanded clinic space (56 new exam and 19 procedure rooms) and new and relocated clinics, including Audiology/Speech Pathology, Dental, ENT, Hematology-Oncology and Neurosciences. Additionally, the new burn unit is the only unit in the state of Arkansas and now is able to accommodate both children and adults. 

The dealer on this project was Today's Office, led by Dealer Principal Rhonda Bradley and Leah Thompson, the account manager. Assisting from the Today's Office team were Melissa Dixon in Design, Missy Holley in Sales Support, and Burt Stribling as the Project and Installation Manager. Making this project even sweeter, Rhonda's daughter Emma Grace spent 15 weeks in the NICU at ACH 5 years ago after surgery to repair a heart defect. The Bradley family got to understand the meaning of "patient-centered" after spending so much time at the hospital with Emma. Today Emma is a happy 5 year old who is an official "ambassador" for the hospital and helped the governor of Arkansas Mike Beebe with the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The project began back in 2007 with a trip to visit the Nurture showroom in Grand Rapids. Since then, Libby has been working with ACH, Cromwell Architects and Today's Office on the planning. Today's Office has an outstanding relationship with ACH and was certainly the most important factor in this win. The project is a wonderful blend of all Steelcase brands, totaling $2,185,574 list. $806,790 of the total was Nurture, primarily Sine, Rave, Sieste sleepers, Mitra tables and Overbed tables.

Leah and Melissa worked with the in-house design team at ACH along with the Cromwell architectural and design team. Nancy Bounds, the senior designer for Cromwell, is the first designer in Arkansas to have EDAC and AAHID credentials, a great selling point for her. This project at first did not have enough NICU space, and had a very decentralized service and clinic offering. The hard work of ACH, Cromwell, Today's Office, and Libby and the Nurture team, however, ensured that all of the healthcare resources for pediatric care at ACH will be under one roof, from acute care to clinics, and that will help make this new wing to Arkansas Children's Hospital a success.