Charlottesville-based University of Virginia Medical Center is beginning an 80-bed expansion of its emergency department June 8. The university's board of visitors approved the three-year, $394 million project in March 2015 in response to high volumes and cramped condition's in the hospital's ED, according to The Daily Progress.
"It's just long overdue given the number of patients we see coming into the ED," said Pamela Sutton-Wallace, CEO of UVa Medical Center.
Overcrowding has become an increasingly common issue, as the department has to turn away about 60 patients per month, and hospital officials expect demand to continue to rise in the near future. According to The Daily Progress, the UVa Medical Center ER currently has 43 bays, many of them housing more than one patient.
Under the expansion plan, the UVa Medical Center will build a new ER wing on the site of one of the hospital's helipads. A six-story bed tower will be constructed directly above the new wing. The first three floors of the tower will support the hospital's ER. Along with the additional hospital beds, the tower will include a special psychiatric unit, more operating rooms and expanded radiology services and cardiology services, according to the report.
The expanded ED is scheduled to open in the summer of 2019 and the bed tower is slated to open in December 2019.