Exclusive: Look inside Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital on Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown campus

COLUMBUS, Ga. ( WRBL ) — On Monday, Columbus will get its first hospital dedicated to treating children. The 30-bed, 26-room Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital will open its doors on the Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown Campus.

The ribbon will be cut on the Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital in the old Doctors Hospital building.

WRBL got an exclusive tour of the facility with Bettye and Cecil Cheves, the lead benefactors. The hospital is named for Bettye’s parents.

The Cheves’ gift was the foundation that made the $28 million project possible. But many others in the city contributed to make the hospital possible. Piedmont Columbus Regional CEO Scott Hill tells WRBL, this will keep more sick children in Columbus, part of the reason is the hiring Pediatric Critical care doctor Subhendu De.

“The addition of Dr. De, it’s a different level,” Hill said. “So he is in essence, starting our program back up. We’ve always been able to keep PICU kids here. We will absolutely be keeping kids here in Columbus that in the past would have been had been transferred.”

As Bettye and Cecil Cheves walked through the facility, they were impressed with what has been accomplished since this idea was tossed around in 2021.

“I see somebody that paid a lot of attention to the needs of the moms and dads and the and their children,” Bettye said, while standing in one of the fifth floor ICU rooms. “And I can just envision the activity that’s going to be going on here. And it far exceeds what I thought it was going to be.”

Cecil Cheves sees a facility that will treat children, but offer more than just care to the parents of those patients.

“I you think peace of mind is so important,” Cecil Cheves said. “And from a parents’ point of view, all the anxiety that goes when your child is is either sick or ill or injured. And the anxiety that that comes with that knowing that your child is getting the very best care possible and you can see it and you can see the attention and you can be part of it and you can look at the surroundings and you just have a sense of peace that is helpful toward the healing process.”

A large colorful turtle will greet those near the admissions desk.

“This is fun and kind of whimsical,” Hill said. “I mean, you’ve got a sick kid coming to the hospital. We want them to feel like this is a place where they can be and feel safe and seek wellness and health.”

Cecil Cheves agrees.

“One of the things we wanted to do is create space for children separating from the adults so that when a child comes in here and they looks around and is going to see all of the artwork and the colors and the animals theme and the river theme, they’re going to say ‘this is kind of a neat place as my place.”

The original cost of the project was going to $15 million. That jumped to $28 million. The Cheves gave the lead gift and helped convince others to join them

“I had friends from other cities, small cities the size of Columbus who’ve come here and they said, I don’t understand how you are able to do what you do in Columbus, because we don’t seem to be able to get it done in our town,'” Bettye Cheves said. “And my answer has always been, this is just the most generous place I can imagine when they first told us how much money we would need to raise. You know, none of us love to ask people for money. And I almost fell out of my chair. And now we’ve gone well beyond that. We did not have one person who did not say yes to our ask. And I think that’s pretty amazing.”

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