UNC Hospitals Wants to Build New Bed Tower on Campus

Posted on June 13, 2008

UNC Hospitals plans to ask the state for permission, and some of the money, to expand not far from the site of the original N.C. Memorial Hospital on the campus.

It wants to add a 321-bed tower just south of the main tower built in 1975 to alleviate pressure from increased demand that keeps the hospital nearly full. Currently there are many days when patients come into the emergency room who need to be admitted and cannot, said spokesperson Karen McCall.

The hospital often can’t accommodate a patient who needs a bed for a particular type of care, and it also has had to turn away transfers from other hospitals, McCall said.

The hospital now has 727 beds. It already has the state’s permission to convert offices and other space to patient rooms to get to 799 beds by 2010. That includes the 50 beds in the N.C. Cancer Hospital now under construction.

If the additional project is approved, the total number of patient beds would be 1,009 by 2014. The hospital also would replace some outdated rooms that lack sophisticated monitoring equipment. The new tower would have 38 surgery and procedure rooms.

“We have more people coming here every day than we can accommodate,” McCall said. “We just feel it’s absolutely critical for us to expand our capacity so we can fulfill our mission.”

In mid-spring, the hospital was running more than 89 percent full, McCall said. The ideal capacity is 75 percent to 80 percent.

The new tower would cost about $732 million, of which UNC Health Care is asking the state for $325.5 million over several years. The hospital system would borrow and use reserves for the rest.

N.C. Memorial opened in 1953 just to the north of the 1975 bed tower. The original building still is in use.

UNC Hospitals also is looking at building additional ambulatory care facilities in Chatham and Wake counties and possibly other sites dictated by population concentration, McCall said.

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Related coverage is available online:

• Chief Physician Named for New Cancer Hospital
  October 2006 news report
• Ground Broken for New N.C. Cancer Hospital
  September 2005 news report
• Clinical Cancer Hospital Approved
  July 2004 news report
• Cancer Center Gains Support in Legislature
  June 2004 news report

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