Atlanta-based Grady Health System is proposing a $165 million expansion project to construct a seven-story surgical center and advance its HIV/AIDS Ponce de Leon Center, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The proposed surgical center would increase Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital's clinic capacity by 45 percent and operating room volume by 25 percent. The surgical center would add six operating rooms for an ambulatory surgery center, dedicate rooms for gastrointestinal procedures, establish an outpatient imaging center and relocate the cancer center. All of these proposed changes would add an additional 52 beds.
Additionally the Ponce de Leon Center, which treats 6,000 HIV/AIDS patients a year, would be expanded.
Currently Grady has 16 operating rooms that are over capacity, according to Renay Blumenthal, president of the Grady Health Foundation. With 13,000 surgeries performed at Grady each year, the need for a new surgical center is eminent, she added.
"This is a big next chapter for Grady," Ms. Blumenthal told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "We cannot grow and continue to meet the needs of the community without this facility."
The health system is seeking donations from both public and private entities to fund the project.