The following article also appears in the summer edition of Memphis Crossroads, the Chamber's quarterly economic development magazine. Memphis Crossroads is available free at selection locations throughout Memphis (including Schnuck's markets), via mail for Chamber members and at the Chamber's offices on the 2nd floor of the Falls Building, 22 N. Front Street.

Much has changed since Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital opened in 1952 –except for its passion to help children.

The latest, most spectacular change is a new, state-of-the-art hospital whose grand opening on June 15 marks an aggressive response to "the continual growing need for children's health care in Memphis and our ability to make that happen," says Meri Armour, LeBonheur’s president and CEO.

Armour says the expansion was simply a "must-do" event.

"Children really are special and different, and we are the comprehensive pediatric provider in the region," she says. But the old building couldn't accommodate new technologies or the expanding patient population for specialty care.

So the board decided in 2005 to give the go-ahead to construct the new facility. In 2007, Armour was brought on board to implement what Le Bonheur calls its “Vision 2020.”

"It's a strategic plan we put together with help from people in the community, our physician partners, our own associates and what we consider to be the best of the best in pediatrics nationally," Armour says. "It's a roadmap to get Le Bonheur to assume its rightful place among the best children's hospitals in the country. We're going to fill this building out with great programs and outreach and advances in pediatric medicine that will make it become a center for excellence in pediatric care."

Dave Rosenbaum is vice president of facilities management for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, the nonprofit hospital group that owns the children's hospital. He outlined the challenges faced in making the transformation.

Because of critical partnerships including those with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the Regional Medical Center (The Med), Le Bonheur wanted to stay in the medical center area. But that meant building a campus with a 12-story tower in a busy, tight area at Poplar and Dunlap.

Fundraising was an enormous challenge. "We committed to raising $100 million," Rosenbaum says, "which was the largest private fundraising effort done in the city of Memphis — and we were successful."

Rosenbaum said Le Bonheur was also committed to hiring locally as much as possible, including minority- and women-owned firms.

Furthermore, it was decided to commit to a sustainable facility and make it a LEED-certified hospital. Certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design means using state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Also, the new hospital had to have state-of-the-art technology which, Rosenbaum pointed out, was tough since no one could know in 2005 what “state-of-the-art” would even be five years later. But by thinking of technology as a fourth utility, giving it a separate budget and building a "backbone" to allow for years of growth, that challenge is being met as construction comes to an end.

Le Bonheur's commitment to location, hiring locally, raising large sums and thinking green while doing its best for the children also reflects a strong respect for the community.

"Le Bonheur belongs to the citizens of Memphis and the Mid-South, and we think we're here to serve that need," Armour says. "So we've spent a great deal of time educating and advising the community about what Le Bonheur does and what it means to families and this community, and it has been remarkably well received."

No small part of that is how it brings families into the process.

Tim and Bridgette Flack, whose young daughter Madeline is a heart patient, are active in Le Bonheur's Family Partners Council, which is comprised of parents, administrators and nurses.
"We help the hospital set policy, and we have helped in the design of the new hospital," Mr. Flack says. "From the beginning, when the plans were drawn up, we were involved in the design.”

That included “going in and looking at mockups of rooms and trying to determine, as parents who had spent quite a bit of time in the hospital, what would make families more comfortable and make their stay a little bit easier," he said.

The council checked out furniture and made recommendations such as creating a sibling room where brothers and sisters of patients can play while parents visit.

Le Bonheur is intricately connected to the local medical community as well.

"We have a very intense and powerful collaboration with St. Jude," Armour says, noting that $7 million from the internationally respected children’s research hospital is helping create high-tech imaging capability so that St. Jude physicians can observe surgeons operating at Le Bonheur and receive critical diagnostic information instantaneously.

Le Bonheur is also the primary pediatric teaching affiliate for the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, and shares patients and programs with The Med. "They have a newborn center where our specialists go, " Armour says.

With all these connections, there is still a need for community participation. On a large scale, there's the FedEx Family House, which provides housing for families of patients receiving extended care at the hospital. The house is made possible by help from FedEx founder, chairman, president and CEO Frederick W. Smith and his wife, Diane, and FedEx executive vice president and chief financial officer Alan Graf and his wife, Susan.

On a smaller scale, Armour says volunteers are always welcome. "If people want to do good work around children they need to call our volunteer office and we'll get them involved," Armour says.

And doing that good work is always the first priority.

"We say that Le Bonheur Children's Hospital is our work," Armour says, "but really our work is about making children better. We think we are the bastion to protect children and their well-being in this community, so we see ourselves as more than a hospital. Anything that happens to kids we want to be part of our mission and the community appreciates that and has been willing to support and endorse that."