Georgia Focus - Arthur M Blank Hosp

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Arthur M. Blank Hospital is a four
hundred and forty six bed children's hospital operated by Children's
Healthcare of Atlanta. It opened on September twenty ninth, twenty
twenty four. Located at the northeastern corner of North Druid
Hills and I A five in Brookhaven, this nineteen story,
two million square facility features a Level one trauma center.

(00:31):
Arthur M. Blank Hospital also offers more than twenty acres
of green space to allow for exposure in nature and
hitting views from patient's rooms. Here to talk about the
Arthur M. Blank Hospital is Linda Massaki, Chief Administrative Officer
of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. We Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
I went to the that was in the new hospital
the other day, and I thought about I were going

(00:52):
to the old hospital and it seemed big. It seemed
huge to me. Now this one is gigantic. It is gigantic.
What is so special about Arthur and Blank Hospital.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, I guess the first thing is it's nineteenth stories.
It had two million square feet, four hundred and forty
six beds and It was really designed with patients and
families and mind focusing on the healing power of light
and nature and dedication to patient and family experience. So

(01:27):
hopefully when you were there you saw how open it was,
how light it was, and the nature theme both inside
and all the windows allow you to see the nature outside.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, I did notice that it came across as really
good when I was there. I went in the studio
and I was in the studio and all outside of
that you could tell there was there was natural light,
like the lighting was natural, but also there's the environment.
It's just such such it just opens up, opens up
a lot bigger than it was at Angilson.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
That was really what we were trying to do. And
research shows that nature is healing, and so because that's
the business that we're in and healing, we really felt
like bring the inside out, so let the patients see outside,
but bring the outside in and bring that nature feeling in.

(02:24):
So that was kind of the first thing. So all
the patient floors have rooms that are identical in design
and size, so that allows us to have flexibility. So
there are much larger patient rooms than we had before.
They have a double sized sleep or sofa for parents.

(02:47):
Parents have their own TV, kids have their own TV.
And then they have floor to ceiling windows so everybody
has a beautiful view of the canopy of it Laine
into so you just see trees for miles and miles,
and there's a lot of natural light. On every floor.

(03:08):
There's washers and dryers and family lounges and kitchenettes, so
that particularly for families that are going to be there
for a while, they have a place they can go eat,
they can wash their clothes, which was a big request
when we started building the hospital. We also have so

(03:30):
you probably went to the Seacrest studio where we went,
so we're excited about that. We can bring in musicians
and movie stars and all kinds of talent. We can
bring in football players, baseball players, basketball players, and they

(03:51):
can broadcast up to the kids' rooms. We also have
the Zone. I don't know if you saw that outdoor
activity area, Okay, so kids and their siblings can go
down there and do arts and crafts, cooking classes, they
can do a lot of games outside. They can play

(04:14):
basketball or a little mini golf, So a lot of
really great amenities for both the kids but also for parents.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, Now nineteenth floors is considerably larger than you were
less time when they're Eggleston, and we take Scottish right,
and then the hospital over by Grady and all of
them together aren't that big, are they? This is big.
It's really big.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
It is definitely big. Yeah, Scottish right and Huth Baulding
Hospitals are definitely smaller. So, you know, we wanted to
build it for expansion, so not just for today, but
to take care of kids years to come. And so
we have capacity to expand.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
And grow even grow beyond right there on your campus.
Now you can grow beyond that.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
We could, that's right. So we can add beds and
we can also we have seventy six acres right here
on this corner of North Druid Hills in eighty five,
and so we have opportunities to expand within this campus
as well.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
You know, does it allow you to have all the
equipment there together so that any child coming in no
matter what there how serious air condition is. No matter
what the condition is, it can be taken care of,
right there is that is that part of it.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, we are a Level one trauma center, so and
we're the only pediatric level one trauma center in the state.
So that's the first thing. So any serious emergency twenty
four to seven we can take care of. So we
have sixty nine emergency rooms and we have six trauma rooms,

(06:09):
so that's a lot bigger, and so a car accident
or anything else that's really serious we can handle. Then
our Hearts center is centered at Arthur and Blank Hospital,
so anything related to heart is all there in one place,

(06:32):
and so that was a big deal for us. And
then all of our cancer is now at Arthur and
Blank Hospital, So whatever it is that you need related
to cancer, it's all in one place. So we centralized cancer,
we have hearts, and then of course we have a

(06:55):
lot of our other specialties that are there.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
What are some of the technologies that you're using innovations
that you just mentioned some, but what are some of
the wores that you're using now at the new hospital.
Does it allow you to use things like that?

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Oh gosh. Well, my favorite is that we have ninety robots.
Really they called autonomous Vogel robots, Oh my gosh. And
so we have ninety of these and basically they can
deliver drugs, blood, oh my goodness, linens, food, to the

(07:32):
patient's rooms. And so we have the most robots of
any hospital. We have the largest fleet right now in
the country. We also have something called RTLS, which is
real time Location system. So if I'm your nurse and

(07:53):
I walk into your room, it says, Linda Masakite, your
nurse is in the room. And that helps parents particularly
know who's coming into the room. Is it the doctor,
is it the nurse, is it the tech? And so
that technology is amazing. Every door, every room has a

(08:18):
patient a patient board, a patient information board, and it
lists all of the procedures you're going to have today.
Your doctor can come in and draw things on the board.
He can show you as he or she can show
you education. So we really have the latest technology that

(08:40):
any hospital in the country has and it's really helping
us to provide uh safer care and more efficient care.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
You know, I was thinking about that. The robots remind
me of that. That really helps you. Because you had
you had to hire so many new people for the
new hospital. How much you have to hire.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
H We hired about eight hundred new positions for the
new hospital, and so that was an undertaking in and
of itself a bit but by the day we opened,
we had hired all those staff and we're now. We

(09:24):
were able to train everyone and now we are operating
very efficiently.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Did a lot of this staff want to come over
from hu Swalding and from Scottish Right at all? Or
are you you have anything?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
You know? So everybody moved over from Eggleston and then
we opened it up for anyone who wanted to apply
for the roles at Arthur and Blank Hospital from Scottish
Right and hughs Falding. You know, honestly, we didn't have
huge take on that, partly because people tend to live
new where they work and so they liked their location.

(10:04):
But we did have some movement.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Okay, and how did you say you had to hire?
Did you hire total?

Speaker 2 (10:10):
We hired eight hundred people?

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Oh wow, wow, yeah, golle.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
So yeah, so now we have about four thousand staff
that work at Arthur and Blank Hospital. The big thing
though was the training. So we completed more than eighty
two thousand, four hundred hours of training and we had

(10:36):
to install thirty thousand pieces of equipment before we moved in,
so that there was a lot that had to happen
before we actually opened our doors. On that first day.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
That hospital is like my hometown in a building. My
hometown is about to save the same amount of people
there down to South Georgia. It's about that's my hometown.
The hospital. That's amazing. Think of it that way. It's amazing.
There's a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's also the same size as Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Two million square feet is what Mercedes Benz Stadium is.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Oh man, Oh, Now, what are you doing, as far
as you know, preparing for the in future needs that
you have? I mean, you have everything for the future
right now. But what are you doing to prepare in
case you need this, in case you need that, and
so forth? What are you preparing for in the future.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, right now, we are doing a long term strategic
plan for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and that is looking
at what are the other needs in Atlanta, what are
the needs across our state and where can we advance
so that we can take care of all of the

(11:55):
children in our state. And what are ways we can
advanced medicine so that we can cure more kids, keep
kids out of the hospital. And so we're really looking
at both prevention and life changing cures, and so thanks

(12:17):
to a grant by the late Bernie Marcus and the
Marcus Foundation, the Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy at Arthur
and Blake Hospital will open later this year. So that
Cellular Therapy center will offer a full range of cell

(12:38):
therapy treatments that will treat not only cancer, but lots
of diseases and so to be able to basically manufacture
cells in the hospital is a game changer for us.
So it's things like that, that kind of research and
innovation that we're really focused on for the future, continuing

(13:03):
to really look for cures for cancer and particularly sickle cell.
We've made a lot of advances there, so that's really
what we're looking at. The other big thing that we're
focused on right now is, as you know, there is
a behavioral mental health crisis in our nation, in the world,

(13:26):
but particularly here in Georgia. So we're looking at really
creating new models of care to treat the kids who
have behavioral mental health issues.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
It's very good. Yeah, that is really a problem right now.
It really is a same yeah, do you have that
in the in the hospital itself?

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Now, we don't what the way. Our model is very
much focused on outpatients. So we have the Zalic Center.
So it's the Zallex Behavioral Mental Health Center, and it's
an outpatient facility. It's just north of the hospital, adjacent

(14:11):
to our campus, and it really is focused on treating
kids who are in crisis in an outpatient setting.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Okay, Okay, So that's that's great now because where you're located,
the hospital itself, it's so easy to get to. I
mean it's right there in eighty five and so it's
right there. It's much easier than Egleston was to get to,
that's right, And that.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Was one of the goals when we picked the location
was to have easy access right off eighty five. And
we're definitely seeing people come both from North eighty five,
South eighty five, four hundred and eighty five. All the
major arteries are heading this They are heading this way.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, they are, they really are. You know, well, I
kind of got ahead of myself. I was going to
ask you about the funding for the hospital. What you
mentioned that Marcus Foundation funded some of your stuff. How
was the hospital funded overall?

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, it was a mixture of fundraising, it was a
mixture of debt financing, and it was a mixture of operation,
so it was about a third or third to third.
But we did a capital campaign and we raised a
billion dollars. Some of that money went towards the hospital,

(15:32):
some of it went to program development and things like
to sell your therapy. Arthur Blank made the lead gift
of two hundred million dollars for the hospital, and so
we were grateful for that, and so the corporate community
really came out. We raised a lot of money, but

(15:55):
we also did do some debt financing and then pulled
money from operations to pay for the rest.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
When did you have to start planning to I mean,
you haven't even broken ground yet. On let's say, when
did you start planning this hospital? How long ago?

Speaker 2 (16:12):
We actually started in twenty fourteen, Okay, so ten years
board opened, so we had to twinkle in our eye
in twenty fourteen. In twenty sixteen we received board approval
to move ahead of our master plans, and then we

(16:34):
actually broke ground on the hospital in February of twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Okay. So you had doctors that advised you on what
to do, nurses that did it, and construction people's everybody,
everybody came together. Huh.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Everybody came together, thousands of employees, nurses, doctors, everybody contributed
to making sure that we were thinking of every thing.
And so far, I think that everyone would say you
thought of everything.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, you did. It's really beautiful. It's a beautiful hospital
and your campus there. Though when you first started building
the building on the corner, it looked like it looked
like it was going to be the hospital. Hey, that's
going to be the hospital. But then the hospital became
up beside it, and it's like, whoa, those are a
big building throughout the campus. Those are part of Children's too,

(17:27):
But what do you do in those earlies?

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, So the building on the corner was the first
building that went up in twenty eighteen, and so it
was it is the Center for Advanced Pediatrics, and it's
for chronic and complex care. So I think kids that
have a lot of complex issues and they need to
go see the specialist. So think of it as a

(17:52):
medical office building for things like cerebral palsy, cystick fibrosis, diabetes,
complex gi issues, those kinds of things. So that's on
the corner. Then just north of that our two six
story buildings we call our Support Center and that's where

(18:15):
all our administrative staff is, so thinks finance hr it,
so your support functions. And so we have about twenty
four hundred employees in those buildings and then the hospital
is right in the middle of the property, as we discussed.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right, and now you still serve children from all one
hundred fifty nine counties in Georgia. Right, that is correct,
and I bet you have even more now, I mean
more now because your hospital's so big.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yes, we're definitely seeing everyone come. Everyone's excited about in
the new facility. And uh, so far we have seen
one hundred and seventeen thousand patients, twenty four thousand emergency

(19:10):
department visits. We've done thirty seven hundred surgical procedures, so
a lot of visits and procedures.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
And that's that's lesson lessen a year, lessen year, that's right,
much lessen much lesseners. So you're you're you have increased
a lot.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Definitely, Yes, we yeah, And we're thrilled to have the
capacity because at Everston we had three hundred and thirty
beds and on any given day at Arthur and Blank
Hospital we're seeing three hundred and eighty, three hundred and

(19:52):
ninety patients, So it's pretty amazing the number of like
what would we do if we didn't have a hospital.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
It's it's it's really beautiful and it's a it's a
godsend that you have it and you can see it
and you know where to go to get help if
you if you have something some problems with your short
with your short are there opportunities for the community to
further support it and to donate. Where can they go
to donate?

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Absolutely well. Our website, of course is www dot h
o A dot o r G and there is a
donate now button on our home page, so that's one way.
Inside the hospital. We have a wall of woodland creatures

(20:41):
and so if you're inside the hospital, there's a QR
code and you can support us by buying an animal
and our woodland forests and so those are just two
ways to get involved. Obviously, we have a lot of
events and activities and community so lots of ways for

(21:03):
the community to support children.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, thank you so much Linda for talking with me
today and taking time out about this hospital. I think
it's an ice phenomenal hospital. It's a phenomenal placement.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Well, thank you so much. John appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
That's Linda Masakite, Chief Administrative officer of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
You can find out more about them and about the
Arthur M. Blank Hospital at CHOA dot org. Thanks to
a generous grant of the late Bernie Marcus and the
Marcus Foundation, the Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy will open
it Arthur M. Blank Hospital in twenty twenty five. Doctor
Douglas Graham is chief of the center.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
We're so excited to be able to open up the
Marcus Center for Sell Your Therapy. This allows us to
be able to take forward new treatments for children with
multiple different types of diseases. In one sense, cell therapy
is the way that we use living cells to fight disease.
The other type of treatment that we'll be able to
use with this center is gene therapy, so that we

(21:56):
can find cells that have gene mutations and can go
in and curR wreck those mutations to be able to
fight disease.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
So you take the cell out of the patient and
put it back into them, or do you take something
from them and then put into somebody else who goes into.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yes, and in both ways. Okay, So let me give
you an example of both ways. So in one way
that we use cell therapy, an example that would be
to fight leukemia. Leukemia that a child may have relapsed
from multiple different upfront therapies that we commonly use. But
when we use cell therapy. There's a form of cell
therapy called cart cell therapy, and in that case we

(22:32):
take the patients on immune cells and then outside of
the patient and the laboratory, we train the immune cells
to identify leukemia cells, and then we give the patient back.
They're on cells that now can seek out and kill
the leukemia cells. And what we have seen is remarkable
success in being able to get patients in remission with
this type of therapy, even after they fill other types

(22:53):
of therapy.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Wow, so that's really working out great.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
It's working out great, much more than we ever anticipated.
And we have other types types of cell therapy in
which we take cells from potentially from other donors and
can use them also to fight disease.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
How do you do the donation with that?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Well, what we are looking at and I can say,
in one way, we have been doing cell therapy for
a few decades, and that's using cells for bon mayre transplant.
So in those cases, we can sometimes use the patient's
own blood or related individual to the patient, and we
use those in Balmere transplant. We use that for multiple

(23:28):
different types of diseases. So this is kind of a
step beyond ball Mayre transplant in which we're using these
targeted cells now and in some cases we have ways
that are anonymous donors that can give cells that can
be used in cell therapy.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
To cell therapy be used for just cancer or other
things besides cancer.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah, already being used for multiple different types of diseases,
So we use cell therapy for cancer, but also it's
used in a regenerative medicine, so in which we just
need the tissue within the patient may be damaged and
we may use it to repair tissues. So for example,
in heart disease, even in children that have heart disease,

(24:05):
we can use cell therapy to be able to assist
them in having healthier tissue.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
When the center is open, well, you'll be able to
do that now, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
So we have now received approval from the FDA that
we're ready to go, ready to open, and we hope
within the next few weeks we'll be able to make
our own manufacture, our own celth therapy products so that
we can use it for the patients. Right here at
Children's Healthcare Arolanta, we have four different rooms that are
called GMP or Good Manufacturing Rooms, that are super clean

(24:34):
rooms and allow us to manufacture cells that can go
back into the patient. So in addition to cell therapy,
we'll also use these center for gene therapy in which
we can use corrected gene defects to be able to
fight disease. So examples of that would be diseases like
sickle cell disease, So now we have gene therapy as
a curative option for patients with sickle cell disease. Another

(24:55):
example is another type of anemia called beta thalcemia, and
we'll be rolling out therapy for that as well. So
in the coming year, we anticipate we'll have gene therapy
accessible for patients for sickle cell disease as well as
betat thalassemia right here at children South Carolina. So in
some cases we'll be manufacturing some of the cell therapy
and gene therapy products ourselves and others will be collaborating

(25:17):
with other centers and pharmaceutical companies to be able to
provide this technology.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Find out more at choa dot org. For questions of
comments on today's program, you can email me, John Clark
at Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to
you next week right here on your local radio station
on Georgia Focus