WVU Medicine
Children's Hospital

The new freestanding Children’s Hospital on the Ruby Memorial campus of West Virginia University Medicine (WVUM) is not just a hospital. It is a facility that supports the delivery of highly specialized care for the kids of West Virginia and beyond. WVUM initiated a multi-prong strategic plan to fortify and enhance their pediatric and obstetric service lines by planning and constructing a freestanding Children’s Hospital while simultaneously recruiting a cadre of specialists and sub-specialists to bring world class care to the state. The Children’s Hospital now stands along the “Miracle Mile,” the row of WVUM’s specialized institutes overlooking the football field, visible from the stands of Puskar Stadium or from your screen when watching the Mountaineers.

The main entry of the hospital is a grand, multi-story, light-filled space that welcomes one’s arrival with calming tones and clear wayfinding. It includes places of refuge such as a café, gift shop, multi-faith chapel, and pharmacy.

The patient rooms begin on the sixth floor, offering stunning vistas of West Virginia’s mountainous topography. The design offers the patient and family control of room lighting including color and ambiance through manipulatable LED light fixtures.

On the seventh floor, the NICU has flexible rooms to accommodate multiple birth events for families gifted with twins, triplets, or quadruplets.

The top floor is dedicated to the Family Resource Center. There are spaces where families can order take-out and have a sit-down dinner, lounge in big comfy beanbag chairs, engage onsite daycare where kids are monitored by trained personnel, utilize a resource center for research, and meet and plan in comfortable non-clinical conference and office space.

Special care was taken to create dedicated areas of respite for healthcare workers, as well. Staff lounges were given a prime spot on each floor away from the unit and awash with natural light, wonderful views, and other positive distractions.