The Medical Center buildings contain more than three million square feet of space and accommodate educational programs in all areas. Research is primarily located in the western sector, hospital facilities primarily in the northern sector, and clinics and some hospital units in the south.

 

The Duke Clinic complex includes nine building additions to the original hospital. The Davison Building, the original teaching facility of the medical school, now houses medical school facilities, medical center administrative offices, and the Department of Pathology. Baker House, the Stead Building, the Busse Building, the Woodhall Building, the Hart Pavilion, and the Clinical Research II Building contain faculty and administrative offices, most of the outpatient clinics, the ambulatory surgery program, rehabilitation programs, and federally and privately supported clinical research units. The Edwin A. Morris Building is connected to the northern end of the Clinic complex and contains outpatient facilities of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Ambulatory surgery programs are housed in the beautiful and new North Pavilion which has front door parking for patients. The pediatric subspecialty clinics, ambulatory surgery program for children, and the James Valvano Day Hospital are all located in th e McGovern-Davison Children’s Health Center, standing near the main entrance of Duke Hospital.

 

Duke University Hospital contains all inpatient units except for psychiatry which is still housed in the Clinic complex. The Duke Children’s Hospital is located on the fifth floor of Duke Hospital. It has 120 beds, a pediatric intensive care unit, and both an intensive care and a full-term nursery. A sixteen-bed pediatric bone marrow transplant unit is also on the fifth floor.

 

The hospital includes a 29-room operating suite; blood bank; diagnostic radiology including three magnetic resonance imaging scanners; laboratories; pharmacies; and the emergency/trauma center. The Emergency Department has a separate area dedicated to children. A helipad adjacent to the emergency department entrance facilitates the transport of critically ill or injured patients. A dedicated elevator can move patients directly to the surgery suite, where an operating room is always on standby for an emergency.

 

The McGovern-Davison Children's Health Center (CHC) opened in the spring of 2000. This free-standing facility, adjacent to and interconnected with Duke University Hospital, provides ambulatory care for children requiring surgical or subspecialty medical care. The children's endoscopy suites, pre-operative and post-operative care, and Pediatric radiology are all located here. The Valvano Day Hospital allows patients to receive intensive, short-term ambulatory treatments. The design, openness, and brilliant colors set the Children's Health Center apart in so many ways that make it clear that this is a facility for children and adolescents.

 

The fifth floor of the Children's Health Center has direct and dedicated access to those facilities of Duke Children's Hospital which are on the fifth floor of Duke Hospital. These include the inpatient units, a newly renovated intensive care unit, an extensively renovated intensive care nursery and transitional care nursery, a full-term nursery, and the children's bone marrow transplant unit. In addition to a pharmacy serving children, a clinical laboratory meets the majority of laboratory needs for pediatric patients. The laboratory is capable of providing the rapid results needed to manage critically ill children. Also on the fifth floor are the Child Life offices and playrooms.

 

The intermediate care inpatient units underwent extensive renovations in 1999, providing an attractive patient and family friendly environment. Virtually all of the rooms are private, with accommodations that allow a parent or relative to remain at the bedside.

 

The practice hub of Duke Children's primary Care is located on Roxboro Road, ten minutes from the Children's Hospital. Additional clinics providing primary care are located in and around Durham, including the Lincoln Community Health Center, an urban health center; Durham Regional Hospital, a community hospital operated by Duke University Health System; the Duke Student Infirmary; and several rural county health departments.

 

In 1987, Duke acquired Lenox Baker Children's Hospital, a freestanding building two blocks from Duke. This facility operates as a clinic for children with brain injuries, cerebral palsy, AIDS or spina bifida. A nearby Ronald McDonald House provides a home away from home for families and children.

 

Beyond the resources of the Duke Medical Center Library, the Department of Pediatrics maintains a library in Duke Children's Hospital with current journals and a comprehensive collection of textbooks. Computer workstations throughout the hospital provide ready access to patient information, Medline literature searches, and links to the World Wide Web.

 

Located between the Hospital and Duke Clinic is the Seeley G. Mudd Building, which houses the Medical Center Library the Searle Center of Continuing Education in the Health Sciences, the Medical Center News Office, the Office of Grants and Contracts, and the Commons Restaurant.

 

The Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Building contains Duke University Eye Center, with four specially equipped operating rooms, inpatient facilities, and an extensive program in pediatric ophthalmology.

 

Duke University Medical Center - Overview

In 1924, James Buchanan Duke gave $4 million to build a medical school, hospital, and nursing school at Duke University. Duke, a philanthropic industrialist, dreamed that his gift would result in the best medical center between Baltimore and New Orleans.

 

More than seventy-five years later, Duke University Medical Center occupies 175 acres on the northern edge of the university campus and has an annual budget of approximately $700 million. It is the focal point of a thriving medical and intellectual community in one of the fastest-growing areas of the nation.

 

Duke University Medical Center has an international reputation of excellence in patient care, medical education, and research. Duke University School of Medicine, ranked among the finest in the country awards certificates and degrees in the nine health professions to 250 students annually The Duke University School of Nursing offers a master of science degree in nursing, with specializations in oncology nursing, nursing administration, and critical care.

 

The research programs at Duke span the clinical and basic sciences: anesthesiology; biochemistry; biological anthropology and anatomy; cell biology; family medicine; genetics; medicine; microbiology and immunology; neurobiology; obstetrics/gynecology; ophthalmology; pathology; pediatrics; pharmacology; psychiatry; radiology; and surgery. Working alone, together, and in collaboration with the Arts and Sciences faculty of the university, Duke scientists have created an extremely productive research environment.

 

Clinical care is delivered primarily within Duke University Hospital, the major private tertiary care center in the Southeast. For some sub-specialties, patients come from all over the world. The hospital treats approximately 34,000 inpatients annually with 450,000 outpatient visits in the clinics. The hospital has grown from 400 beds in 1930 to licensure for 1,125 beds. Duke has about 2,000 faculty members, more than half of whom are full-time faculty.

 

Duke treats a wide variety of patients whose problems range from the most common to the most specialized. The original endowment agreement stated that Duke would provide care to the poor. Today Duke remains the primary provider of indigent patient care in the state of North Carolina, and our staff members serve as primary care pediatricians for many children in the Durham area.