Medical gift is Duke's biggest

Pediatrics gets part of $50 million

DURHAM -- There are 153 inpatient beds at Duke University's children's health center. Duke officials say that isn't enough.

"We are too frequently turning patients away," said Joseph St. Geme, chairman of Duke's pediatrics department.

A $50 million gift from the Duke Endowment should help. The gift, announced Monday, is the largest ever to the Duke University Medical Center, and $15 million of it will help build a new inpatient facility for Duke's McGovern-Davison Children's Health Center.

The remaining $35 million will help build an education center for the medical school.

The endowment is a private charitable foundation created in 1924 by Duke University's founder, tobacco baron James B. Duke.

Duke officials called the pediatrics piece of the gift a "renewed dedication" to children's medicine. The announcement was made in the lobby of the McGovern-Davison building, a large pediatric outpatient clinic. The need is more acute next door, on the fifth floor of Duke's main hospital. That's where the sickest children -- those who stay for days or weeks -- are cared for. Often, the parents of those children have only a folding chair on which to sit or sleep, St. Geme said. Thus, one thrust of the new pediatrics facility will be more space for family members forced to spend long hours with their sick children.

"Think about being a young child in the hospital without a parent or family member," he said. "It's critical that we provide space for them."

Duke officials hope eventually to have 200 to 250 inpatient beds for children.

In Chapel Hill, the N.C. Children's Hospital has 136 pediatric inpatient beds, a UNC spokeswoman said.

Hospitals must get a certificate of need from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services before adding space or equipment.

The added space would allow Duke to expand some programs, add equipment and hire more pediatric doctors, St. Geme said. In some specialty areas, medical advancement has led to a need for more equipment and space. One example: Pediatric specialists and new technology have helped more pre-term infants survive troubled births. Duke's children's facility thus needs more room and specialty equipment to care for babies that, years ago, may not have lived, St. Geme said.

Education center

The $35 million will help build a new medicine education center, which Duke officials say will help the medical school change its teaching philosophy. It will include simulation labs and other space for students to work in small teams, a departure from the memorization-based learning philosophy of old, officials said Monday.

"Medical education in my era consisted largely of sitting in a classroom hearing a lecture," said R. Sanders "Sandy" Williams, the medical center's senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "Medical science has expanded exponentially, and we've found it preferable to teach in a different way."

A simulation lab allows teams of students to work through real-life exercises. Duke has one such lab now -- in an old operating room. The new plan calls for more simulation labs and other space for team-based exercises.

"We can't memorize everything; we have to go and find answers," said Victor Dzau, Duke's vice chancellor for medical affairs. "We're teaching people to be creative and innovative. This is very much a needed shift."

The total cost of each project was not known Monday, nor were their specific locations. The children's facility will be connected in some way to the current children's medical center, and the medical education center will be on one of three sites on the medical campus and most likely connected to the Davison building, where the medical school's administrative offices are located, officials said.