More clinics set to debut in Doctors’ Office Tower
On Monday, Oct. 3, the Doctors' Office Tower (DOT) at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt will open new clinics and faculty offices on floors eight, nine and 11, completing the second phase of the building's construction.
“With the opening of more clinical floors in the DOT, we will be able to provide better service for our patients,” said Misty Chambers, R.N., director of Facilities Planning at Children's Hospital. “The advantages include that the clinics that are moving into the building will be closer to other inpatient and outpatient children's services.
“With these children's services in one building, families will now be able to more easily utilize the services provided in VCH, including the Family Resource Center and the VCH Outpatient Pharmacy.”
Last December, the fourth, fifth and sixth floors opened in the DOT. Now, several of the remaining clinics previously housed in other areas of Vanderbilt University Medical Center will move into the DOT, which is located within Children's Hospital. With the addition of clinical floors eight and nine, all but a few surgical specialities will now be in the building.
The DOT sits atop the third floor of Children's Hospital and is adjacent to the South Garage. Patients and their families will enter the DOT through a set of elevators at the South Garage entrance of Children's Hospital.
"It is exciting to continue to consolidate outpatient services for all children in one location, to improve accessibility and create efficiency and ease for the families and patients,” said Arnold Strauss, M.D., James C. Overall Professor of Pediatrics. “As chair of the Department of Pediatrics, I am particularly excited that we will be moving most of our clinical faculty to the same area within DOT. I believe this will improve patient care and create opportunities for clinical research studies. This really is the beginning of a new era."
Construction on the outer shell of the DOT — which stands eight floors tall and is located on floors four through 11 — took place as Children's Hospital was being built. Construction on much of the interior of the DOT began in February 2004, soon after the Children's Hospital opened.
Planning for the DOT coincided with that of Children's Hospital to ensure convenience for patients and families seeking medical care, whether inpatient or outpatient.
Plans are still under way for what units will move into the spaces left vacated in the Medical Center by the consolidation of pediatric clinics in the DOT. These vacated spaces will be renovated and updated as part of ongoing efforts to renew VUH.
The final phase of the project, floors seven and 10, currently await funding, according to Phyllis Ekdall, chief operating officer for Outpatient Services and Physician Practices at Children's Hospital.
“We are thrilled that this day has finally come and we are able to bring the remaining faculty, staff and patients from the Medical Center East pediatric clinics to the DOT,” Ekdall said. “We look forward to the construction of Phase III [floors seven and 10] when we can be joined by Pediatric ENT, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery and Dentistry.”
Visit www.vanderbiltchildrens.com for more DOT information.