Northwestern Memorial Hospital applied for a $77.6 million expansion, which would allow them to add 49 new beds and connect the Feinberg and Galter pavilions.

The hospital has had to keep patients in the emergency department for extended periods of time and turn away patients transferring from other hospitals for special services due to a shortage of beds.

The hospital currently has 894 beds. The project would include the addition of 24 ICU beds and 25 medical/surgical beds, which would help the hospital expand its specialized care programs.

The hospital also anticipates a 4 percent increase in ICU utilization from 2018-2023, and a continued increase in people over the age of 65. The 65 and over age group accounts for 42 percent of medical/surgical patients at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The three-story-building that would connect the Feinberg and Galter pavilions would improve the safe-transfer of patients in critical condition.

In the past 20 years, the hospital has been approved for three other expansion projects. In 2007, The Prentice Women’s Hospital opened. In 2014, the Lavin Family Pavilion, measuring about 1 million square feet, was built. In 2015, construction started on Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center building, and was completed in June 2019.

The state board will vote on the application during their June 30 meeting. If approved, the project will start in September and scheduled to be completed by December 2022.

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