Hospital facility for detecting congenital heart disease completed

CannonDesign recently completed an innovative facility offering first-of-its-kind comprehensive care for adult congenital heart disease.

By CannonDesign January 5, 2021

CannonDesign, who collaborated with Texas Children’s Hospital on its Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower, recently completed an innovative facility offering first-of-its-kind comprehensive care for adult congenital heart disease.

Designed to address a growing need for adult treatment spaces within pediatric hospitals as more patients with chronic health issues survive into adulthood, this new, contemporary unit provides comprehensive medical care with 16-bed acuity-adaptable inpatient beds, an outpatient clinic, a cardiac rehab gym, procedure space and more.

The Adult Congenital Heart Program has been a part of Texas Children’s since 2004, because “congenital heart expertise still resides mostly within the pediatric cardiology and congenital heart arena as adult cardiologists almost entirely take care of adults with acquired disease – not one that was present at birth,” according to Dr. Peter Ermis, medical director of the Texas Children’s ACH program.

CannonDesign helped Texas Children’s with master planning, architecture, interior design and equipment planning services for the 25-story Smith Legacy Tower, which opened in 2018.  Texas Children’s Heart Center, ranked #1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery, occupies nine floors in the tower. The tower also includes an 84-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with specialized surgical, neuro and transitional ICU beds.

The PICU was awarded an ICU Design Citation in 2019 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the American Institute of Architects Academy on Architecture for Health.


This article originally appeared on CannonDesign’s websiteCannonDesign is a CFE Media content partner.

Original content can be found at www.cannondesign.com.