A price tag of $71 million won't stop the University Health System from expanding the Medical Center in summer 2002.
The Health System plans to build a four-story addition to the rear of the University Hospital complex. It has also marked 180,000 square feet of the existing hospital for renovation.
"An expansion is sorely needed," said Jules Levine, associate vice president of the University Health System. "We're bursting at the seams here."
The part of the hospital scheduled to be renovated is referred to as the new hospital, built in 1989. It was built when the older hospital, constructed in 1960, became too small.
"The Health System has been planning an expansion for a while now," Health System spokeswoman Marguerite Beck said. "This will be the first major renovation to the new hospital. After all, it isn't exactly new anymore."
When the new hospital was built, the planners left a small area behind the building specifically for an addition.
The basement of the will house a morgue and an autopsy center. Currently, these both reside only in the old hospital.
"It just makes sense to move these to the new hospital," Levine said. "It's more efficient that way."
The radiology department will expand to the first floor of the new hospital. Also, the lobby will be renovated and two new elevators are scheduled to be built: one going directly to the operating rooms on the second floor, and the other going to the heart center on the third floor.
"Hopefully this will cut down on traffic in the elevators," Beck said.
The biggest part of the project calls for building five new operating rooms.
In addition to the new operating rooms, all 19 older ones will be renovated to increase space and modernize the facilities.
"Back when we built the old ORs in the 1980s, 400 square feet was a good size," Levine said. "But today, that's below the standard. So we need to look at not only how many ORs we have, but their sizes."
Also, a newer, larger heart center is included in the expansion project.
"The University's heart center is one of the best in the country," Levine said. "Due to that, people are coming from all over to the Health Center here. The volume we're receiving is tremendous. We just can't see everyone with the space we have."
Construction is supposed to start around July.
"We're planning it right now," Levine said. "The planned completion for the project is the summer of 2005."
Beck said the hospital will receive some of the money it needs from its annual operating budget. The rest of the money will come from bonds the hospital intends to issue for this project.
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