After 33 years, the Division of Pediatric Cardiology is moving from Medical Center North to new space at the Doctors’ Office Tower.
by Dana Johnson
Doctors' Office Tower: Pediatric Cardiology moves to new space after 33 years
In early December, the D-2200 hallway at Medical Center North was a little more rumpled-looking than usual, with carts and boxes and stacks of purged paper goods scattered about. But there was also an air of nostalgia as the occupants of that hallway, the people who make up the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, prepared to move for the first time in a very long time.
“Basically we've been here since 1972 — 33 years,” said former Division Chief Thomas P. Graham Jr., M.D., Ann and Monroe Carell Jr. Family Professor of Pediatrics. Graham spoke on Dec. 1 as he boxed up much of his office, at D-2212 Medical Center North (MCN), the space he has held longer than most people have held any space on the Medical Center campus. “This makes me think about how long I've been here,” Graham said.
Now, the division has moved to the south end of the Medical Center campus, to the new Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. The division has parked its office spaces and outpatient clinics in the Doctors' Office Tower (DOT) inside the Children's Hospital and will open Dec. 13.
Graham said he had only one regret about the move: “I'll have to leave the parking space I've had for 33 years. They've been talking about building something else on our parking lot by the University Club for years. That never happened, but now I'm moving and will have to find a spot in the Children's Hospital garage.”
But it's all good. People who work in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology have been spread all over campus in recent years. This new facility will bring the division closer together and make services more centralized and streamlined.
Deb Cunningham, administrative assistant for the division, looks forward to the fresh start.
“We have a lot of shred-it bags and Environmental Services has given us a dumpster for two weeks to dispose of as much stuff as we can,” Cunningham said. “I'm surprised. A lot of doctors have been weeding through files and getting rid of things they thought they couldn't have before. They've purged a lot.”
Don Moore, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics says he's cleared out a great deal.
“It's an opportunity to thin out what needs to be thinned out,” Moore said. The week of the move, Moore's bookshelves stood almost empty, except for a collection of classic-looking books on a top shelf. “Those were my father's, he was a microbiologist. I'm keeping those.”
The move was quick and efficient. For those who wonder how to find them now, phone numbers and contacts are all the same, only the address has changed.
The Division of Pediatric Cardiology and their clinics can now be found on the fifth floor of the newly opened DOT within the Children's Hospital.