USA Children's & Women's Hospital Dedicates Expansion, Holds Open House

The University of South Alabama Children’s & Women’s Hospital dedicated its 195,000-square-foot expansion Sept. 12, 2013. Former patients and officials cut the ribbon during the ceremony.

Mandy Young holds her daughter Alli, 1, as she scribbles on a sign called the Light House Panel during the Community Open House at USA Children's & Women's Hospital Sept. 15, 2013. The panel will be installed in theLight House in the new wing of the hospital. Mandy's other daughter Jaidyn Graff, 8, watches her sister at far left.

The University of South Alabama Children's & Women's Hospital dedicated a new, 195,000-square-foot expansion Sept. 12, 2013. The event featured a children's choir of patients and former patients and testimonials from those who have been helped by the hospital. Tours of the hospital were available after the event.

The $72.6 million expansion, funded by the USA Health System and the USA Foundation and private gifts, features more space for the hospital's neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, additional operating rooms, and larger patient rooms to better accommodate visitors and families. Vital support services such as an enlarged cafeteria and kitchen, and professional teaching and community education space are also included in the five-level expansion. Two "family rooms" have been created by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mobile Inc.

USA Children's & Women's Hospital also hosted a Community Open House on Sept. 15, 2013, sponsored by Hancock Bank. This event included tours, refreshments, face-painting, music, and arts and crafts.

To view photos from the dedication ceremony, click here.

To view photos from the Community Open House, click here.

For local news coverage of the events, click the following links:
FOX10
Local 15
al.com/Press-Register
Gulf Coast Newspapers