Strategic Innovation: The Children's Hospital at Montefiore

Who: The Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Home Base: The Bronx, New York
Year Founded: 2001

The first thing you see when you walk into the Children's Hospital at Montefiore is a glowing glass mural of the Milky Way. The swirl of cosmic blues and purples envelops a white-hot center marked with a tiny red dot. It reads, "You are here."

It's a reminder that "here" is not just a busy hilltop in the northwest corner of the Bronx. Nor is "here" merely one of the most technologically advanced children's hospitals in the world. "Here" happens to be in the middle of a scaled-down model of the solar system crafted out of lustrous materials and graceful curves. "Here" also serves as both an entry into the hospital and an entry into the hospital's unique mission: to take children on a journey to health, discovery, and possibility.

Every inch of the hospital -- an impressive $123 million addition to the sprawling Montefiore Medical Center that serves southern Westchester County and the Bronx -- is loaded with information and inspiration about the universe, from the microscopic functions of life to the outer reaches of space. The inspiration for the science theme is the cosmic worldview of the late Carl Sagan, astronomer, author, and scientific philosopher. The exhibit-quality artistry and meticulous layers of detail are the contribution of David Rockwell, whose firm, Rockwell Group, is best known for creating theatrical extravaganzas, smart restaurants, and ultrahip hotels. The effect is part high-tech classroom, part cutting-edge science museum, part futuristic playground. Combined, it is a powerful statement of what a children's hospital needs to be.

And not just any children's hospital, but one set in the Bronx, home to 450,000 children, some of whom are the most medically underserved and at risk in the nation. It's the latest manifestation of Dr. Irwin Redlener's single-minded agenda: to establish a "medical home" for every child who lacks continuous access to high-quality, comprehensive health care and, in the process, to rethink the nature of hospitals, the role of doctors, and the standard approach to pediatric health care. "For me, it's never been just a question of providing health services to children in need," says Redlener. "It's about using health care as a lever to address the global needs of the most disadvantaged kids. For these children, health care is a foot in the door to the future. If we give them a shot at being happy and healthy while they're young, we give them the opportunity to realize their potential as adults."

Redlener, 57, is a pediatrician -- but he has never been just a doctor. For more than 30 years, while helping sick kids get better, he has also worked as a forceful advocate and creative problem solver on behalf of the world's most disenfranchised children and families. From his early days as medical director of a health center run by Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) in rural east Arkansas, Redlener went on to develop innovative programs for the management and prevention of child abuse and to lead relief efforts in places such as Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Sudan. As medical director of USA for Africa and Hands Across America, Redlener forged a friendship with music legend Paul Simon and later built a partnership to tackle the monumental challenge of quality health care for homeless children in New York City. Launched out of a van outside a welfare hotel, the Children's Health Fund is now the largest health-care system for homeless children in the nation, with a network of 16 innovative urban and rural programs.

A combination of kindly family doctor, political animal, and aggressive entrepreneur, Redlener describes himself as an "impatient entrepreneur." The title reflects his abiding awareness that, despite his 30 years spent facing down children's health-care issues, nearly 20% of the nation's children still live in poverty, nearly 11 million children lack health insurance, and almost 10 million more are without reasonable access to quality health care. Redlener knows that the only way to move the needle on numbers like that is to reframe the issue. The question isn't just, How do you create an accessible health-care system? The deeper question is, How do you unlock the future for millions of kids with no sense of hope?

Which is why the galaxy is in the lobby at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore. In 1997, the president of Montefiore Medical Center, Dr. Spencer Foreman, raised $20 million in startup grants from Montefiore trustees Martin Davis and Lionel Pincus. Then he tapped Redlener to take a leadership role in the children's hospital. Redlener seized the opportunity.