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Special Ceremony Marks Children's Hospital Opening

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Apr 16, 2009 1:52 pm US/Eastern

Special Ceremony Marks Children's Hospital Opening

Reporting
David Hall
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― It's a big day for Children's Hospital as a ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the next step in opening the new medical facility in the city's Lawrenceville section.

"It's been a long journey and it's been great to be a part of that because it's such a team process," said Chris Gessner, the president of Children's Hospital.

Part of that process meant tearing down most of the old Saint Francis Hospital, and building in its place nine brand-new buildings, which sit on 10 acres and one million square feet.

Gessner says the project took six years to come to fruition, but it was long overdue for the children in the area.

"We have wonderful new features here… parking is much better, much more technologically sophisticated," he said. "We're completely paperless. We have 296 licensed beds - so in-patients - 296; but multiple out-patients, approximately 65,000 out-patients come to our emergency department every year. Over 500,000 ambulatory visits come here. So it has significant capacity."

And it was all done with backing and funding from UPMC and other partners to the tune of $625 million.

"We needed a new Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. Our current Children's Hospital was in disrepair, and it was essential to the right thing for this community," said Jeffery Romoff, UPMC CEO.

Ambulatory patients will be moved in next Monday and in-patients will be moved in on May 2nd.

Stay with KDKA for more on today's events.

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