Dive Brief:
- The Washington, DC Zoning Commission has approved a $567 million expansion of the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, according to the Washington Business Journal.
- The new six-story surgical pavilion will include emergency care, two floors of operating rooms, three patient-care units, intensive care facilities, imaging services, a helipad on the roof and almost 650 underground parking spaces. The addition will increase the hospital's capacity by 123 beds.
- The green light from the zoning commission means construction on the 477,000-square-foot expansion can begin in January 2018, a year later than Georgetown officials originally planned, and is expected to be complete in 2021.
Dive Insight:
While there has been a growing trend toward more outpatient centers, many hospitals have increased their capacity as well, enhancing those services that require patient stays, as well as adding ambulatory facilities.
One of those projects is the $349 million Inspira facility now under construction in Harrison Township, NJ. That medical center will provide outpatient care, as well as offer traditional in-house services.
The Virtua Health System is also including outpatient services and an ambulatory surgical center at its new $1 billion hospital complex in New Jersey. The new medical facility will offer between 339 and 383 beds, inpatient and outpatient care, an outpatient surgical center, an emergency department, a long-term care center, assisted living, medical offices and women's and children's services.
As part of its largest capital project ever, the University of Pennsylvania has started construction on a massive, $1.5 billion, 1.5-million-square-foot medical pavilion on its Philadelphia campus. The 17-story hospital, part of the Penn Medicine health system, will feature 500 private rooms, inpatient care for heart and vascular patients, neurology and neurosurgery units, a cancer center and an emergency department.
Mortenson is also working on a true megahospital project in Minnesota. The contractor announced in April that it had completed the site selection and design for the first building in the Discovery Square section of Mayo Clinic's $6 billion Destination Medical Center in Rochester, MN. The new 60,000-square-foot life science research building has been touted as an energy-efficient space that will encourage collaboration between the companies that will eventually occupy the building.