CAPE NATIVE IS HOSPITAL PRESIDENT IN ARIZONA

When Cape Girardeau native Burl Stamp began work in the Southeast Missouri Hospital marketing department after graduating from college, he had no idea it was the beginning of a career in health care that would lead him to become the president of one of the top children's hospitals in the country.

"When I took the job at Southeast, I was primarily interested in a public relations career," said Stamp, now president of Phoenix Children's Hospital, who was in Cape Girardeau this week visiting relatives. "But I really grew to love hospital people and work."

Stamp, a 1978 graduate of Cape Central High School and a 1982 marketing and communications graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, has been president and chief executive officer of Phoenix Children's Hospital since he was recruited there in 1998. He is leading the children's hospital from its present location in Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center to the renovation of a former medical center to create Arizona's first free-standing children's hospital.

It's an ambitious project that will incorporate many innovative ideas and will enlarge Phoenix Children's to make it one of the top 10 largest children's hospitals in the country, Stamp said.

"We had grown to the point that we needed our own campus," said Stamp. The hospital, which serves critically ill and injured children from throughout Arizona, currently has 219 beds and a long list of ill children waiting to get in one of them. When it has its own building, Phoenix Children's will have 300 beds, plus playrooms on every floor, sleep space for parents and an in-hospital school. That's in addition to the specialized equipment and specially trained staff required to run a hospital geared to the needs of children, Stamp said.

"The new facility will incorporate the latest ideas in caring for critically ill and injured children and their families," said Stamp. "The entire facility will be focused on their unique needs."

For instance, part of the lobby of the new hospital will hold an education and resource center, Stamp said. The idea behind this is that the more family members know about the illness or injury that brought their child to the hospital, the better they will be able to cope with the stress they will experience.

Stamp said family-centered care is a hallmark of Phoenix Children's Hospital. Providing input in the operation of the hospital are two advisory panels, one made up of parents and one made up of children.

"We were the first hospital to develop a children's advisory board made up of former patients and the siblings of former patients," Stamp said.

Stamp's background in running a children's hospital came from working nine years at St. Louis Children's Hospital, which he said is one of the country's leading pediatric medical institution.

From Southeast hospital, Stamp had earned a master's degree in business administration from Washington University and gone to work for Ralston Purina.

"But I missed hospital work more than I thought I would," Stamp said.

He landed a job at St. Louis Children's Hospital, where he developed that hospital's first strategic marketing plan and was eventually named vice president in charge of business development before being recruited by Phoenix Children's.

But much of his general philosophy about what a hospital should provide came from that first job at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"People like (former administrator) O.D. Niswonger, (present administrator) Jim Wente and (assistant administrator) Dick Meyer were my first role models in hospital administration," Stamp said.

"People who work in hospitals have a special dedication," Stamp said. "At a children's hospital, it's a commitment to the children and families we serve."