Veteran nurse manager to oversee planning for new Children's Hospital
Misty Sperry Chambers
A longtime nurse manager with 11 years' experience in various roles at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital has been named to a new position to help coordinate efforts to build a new, freestanding Children's Hospital.
As director of Planning for Children's Hospital, Misty Sperry Chambers, R.N., M.S.N., will work closely with Dan Buxbaum, longtime director of Space and Facilities Planning, who has agreed to devote the majority of his time and effort to the project.
"Dan and Misty will lead the entire team charged to organize and coordinate our efforts to plan, construct and open the new Children's Hospital," said Norman B. Urmy, executive vice president for Clinical Affairs.
"This is a unique partnership that brings together very complementary skills and experience – Dan in the field of space and facilities planning and Misty in the clinical arena. I am pleased that they have accepted this vital responsibility."
Chambers, who joined Vanderbilt Children's Hospital as a night-shift staff nurse in 1988, has most recently served as manager of the pediatric surgical inpatient unit on 6N. She also has managed the surgical holding/recovery area in Medical Center East and 5S. As assistant manager of 5th floor Pediatrics, she oversaw the initial development of the respite care program funded by the Junior League of Nashville.
She also served as assistant manager of 5S, during which time she provided the unit leadership for development of the pediatric myelosuppression and telemetry programs.
Chambers said she is excited about taking the new role because it builds on her strengths while also allowing her to stretch herself professionally.
"In addition to my clinical background, my strengths are really in organization and planning, and my past experience also includes some work in home health and in pediatrics at a community hospital," she said.
"I also really believe in what we want to accomplish with this new Children's Hospital. We need to include everyone, not just the staff and faculty, but the families, the patients and individuals in the community. So many people want and need to be a part of this process. Our challenge is to build a new Children's Hospital that is on budget, on time and really encompasses as many things as possible that the Vanderbilt community, the Nashville community and the region want to see in the facility."
A representative "design team," including faculty, staff, volunteers, patients and families and others, has been formed to work closely with the architects, Earl Swensson Associates, and the design consultant, Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, in planning and designing the new hospital. That team is divided into 27 committees focused on specific aspects of the facility, such as pediatric intensive care, inpatient units, outpatient areas and lobbies/other public spaces. Next month, the first of those committees will begin meeting; because of the nature in which the work of committees affect that of other groups, additional committees will begin their work in a sequential fashion over the next several weeks.
Chambers and Buxbaum will be working with John R. Sparks, an architect with VUMC's Space and Facilities Planning division who has been named project manager. Centex Rogers, which did the recent addition to the Stevenson Center and many renovations at VUMC, has been selected as the construction company.