Edward Hospital proposes two-floor addition
Sun-Times Media
December 14, 2011
Edward Hospital has submitted a Certificate of Need application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to add two floors of patient beds to the West Building on its Naperville campus.
“Edward has been at or near capacity on many days over the past year,” said Pam Davis, president and CEO of Edward Hospital. “We need these new beds to accommodate continued expected growth in our service area.”
Adding beds in Naperville doesn’t mean Edward still isn’t working to build a hospital in Plainfield, Davis said.
“Adding hospital beds to our Naperville campus is the best alternative currently available,” she said. “We are still committed to bringing a hospital to Plainfield. However, the regulatory and economic climate isn’t right at this time. We continue to develop the Edward Plainfield campus, including a $100 million investment in buildings and services and the recent addition of new primary care physicians.”
The proposed $63.7 million West Building project at the Naperville campus would add two floors of beds and include:
• A new third floor with 36 beds for orthopedic/spine patients and a physical therapy gym.
• A new fourth floor with 24 ICU beds and a storage area for beds and other equipment not in use.
Pending approval by the Illinois Health Facilities board, construction would begin in spring of 2012 with completion scheduled for late 2013.
The two-floor addition would increase Edward’s bed count from 309 to 357, plus the 101 beds of Linden Oaks, Edward’s behavioral health hospital.
Edward is in the midst of a half-billion dollar expansion of services and facilities throughout its service area in the west and southwest suburbs of Chicago. In 2012, it plans to finish the expansion of Edward Healthcare Center in Bolingbrook, which includes a new open MRI; open Illinois’ first Ronald McDonald Family Room on the Naperville campus in late February; unveil a hybrid cardiovascular operating room and hyperbaric treatment rooms on the Naperville campus; and finish one-story additions to existing inpatient wings at Linden Oaks at Edward, as well as renovation of existing inpatient units there.
All the work, including the proposed West Building addition, are designed to serve a growing base of patients, said Brian Davis, vice president of marketing with Edward Hospital.
“Our share of the (healthcare) market has grown,” he said.
According to Davis, ER visits to the facilities in Naperville and Plainfield are “up significantly” over the past year and there is also “a growth on the inpatient side” as well.
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