Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina broke ground on a $385 million children's hospital Friday, according to the Charleston Regional Business Journal.
The MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital and Pearl Tourville Women's Pavilion, which is expected to open in 2019, will be the largest, most comprehensive healthcare facility for mothers and children in the state, MUSC President David Cole, MD, told the Charleston Regional Business Journal.
According to Dr. Cole, more than two dozen families of children who were patients at the existing MUSC Children's Hospital met with architects, physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers over the course of two years to help design the new facility's floor plans and amenities. Each floor will include a child-life room equipped with toys, games, books and art supplies, and there will also be an atrium with an outdoor playground on the seventh floor.
In addition to its patient-centered design, the hospital will have the largest, most advanced pediatric heart center in South Carolina and an expanded neonatal intensive care unit, according to the report.
The new hospital is named after Shawn Jenkins, co-founder and CEO of Benefitfocus, who donated $25 million toward the new hospital. As of last week $102 million had been raised to support the hospital's construction, according to the report.