By Joe Barron

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced plans Tuesday for a full-service, inpatient medical center  in King of Prussia — its first outside the city in its 160-year history.

The 52-bed, 250,000-square-foot hospital will be built beside CHOP’s specialty care and outpatient surgery center on Goddard Boulevard and is expected to open in 2021.

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“It’s really just around the corner,” Madeline Bell, CHOP president and CEO, said at the press conference held to announce the project. “We really believe care is best closest to home.”

Upper Merion Supervisor Greg Waks; Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh; orthopedic surgeon Jack Flynn; and Emma Fair, 13, a CHOP patient, and her mother, Rachel, also spoke at the event.

Arkoosh, herself a physician, said she served her residency at CHOP, where she learned to administer anesthesia to children.

“We are extremely pleased that the first foray to build a new hospital separate from the mother ship will be right here in Montgomery County,” she said. “CHOP is near and dear to my heart, and I know personally the high level of care that is given to patients there.”

Construction will also generate employment, Arkoosh said, helping to maintain Upper Merion’s status as the third largest employment hub in southeastern Pennsylvania, after Center City and University City, Philadelphia.

The new medical center will feature a 16-bed pediatric intensive care unit; a 36-bed medical surgical unit; pediatric specialties including orthopedics, plastic surgery, and ear, nose and throat care;  a 20-bay pediatric emergency department open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; a suite of operating rooms specializing in elective procedures requiring overnight stays; radiology services; and transitional care for patients with chronic, complex conditions requiring assisted breathing.

In addition to the services, speakers touted the hospital’s location and its proximity to Route 76 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which, they said, will allow CHOP to serve the suburban population more easily. Over the summer months, Flynn said, the Philadelphia hospital treats three to six children with bone fracture per day, many of whom live in the suburbs. Beginning in 2021, he said, they and their families will no longer get stuck in traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway while heading downtown for treatment.

CHOP’s operating theaters in Philadelphia were recently renovated, Flynn said, and the lessons learned from that project are being applied to the design of the King of Prussia building. He and other medical staff meet regularly with administrators and architects to discuss issues such as the optimum placement of equipment, he said.

Rachel Fair, a resident of  Downingtown, said her daughter’s surgery would have taken place in King of Prussia if an inpatient hospital had been available there two years ago. Emma, who was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11, underwent spinal fusion surgery, performed by Dr. Flynn, at CHOP’s main campus. Today, she attends Downingtown Middle School, where she plays field hockey and participates in the music theater program. She is also active in her church.

“Nothing stops me,” she told the gathering. “My experience at CHOP inspired me to want to be a nurse.”

Founded in 1855, CHOP is the nation’s first pediatric hospital. It currently serves more than 1.3 million children annually on its main campus in University City and through the CHOP Care Network.

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