Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Healthcare System plans to invest about $1 billion on upgrades and expansions "to create the next generation healthcare system," according to Louisville Business First.
The health system plans to invest $690 million in specific improvements for hospitals, outpatient sites and other facilities in the Louisville area.
One of the projects includes a $225 million investment to dedicate more space to surgical suites in its hospital in Louisville. Another is creating a Center of Excellence for orthopedics at the hospital.
Another project calls for spending $250 million on a new medical campus in Lexington, Ky., with an emergency department, regional cancer center and medical offices. The health system also plans to open 43 new beds at Baptist Health Lexington.
Baptist Healthcare also will allot money to build multispecialty outpatient health centers with telemedicine capabilities. The locations of the centers have not been determined.
"These [outpatient centers] give folks all the services that they really need short of having to go to the hospital," Jody Prather, chief strategy and marketing officer for Baptist Healthcare, told Louisville Business First. "Instead of just building bigger, we’re trying to build smarter."
In addition, Baptist plans to expand its physician group by adding 50 physicians in five years to support the expansion.
Read more about the expansion here.