Record Patient Volumes Lead The University of Kansas Hospital To Expansion

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Spurred by record patient volumes, The University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board today approved a $50 million plan to construct three new patient care floors onto the hospital’s Center for Advanced Heart Care.

The University of Kansas Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Care”This plan allows us to accommodate the significant demand for inpatient services, but does so in a way that helps hold costs down for the patients and for us,” said Robert Honse, chair of The University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board.

The approved plan calls for the current sixth floor, which hosts mechanical functions, to be expanded to include additional mechanical capacity as well as additional conference room space. A new seventh floor will add a 32-bed telemetry unit. New 8th and 9th floors will be constructed as shelled-in space for future expansion, but potentially could accommodate a 32-bed unit and a 24-bed unit, respectively.

“The new floors will continue the award-winning building design of the Center for Advanced Heart Care and its patient-focused layout,” said Bob Page, president and chief executive officer of The University of Kansas Hospital. “The rooms will be designed to support patients from many specialties, with varying levels care, including intensive care.”

Page said the same team of RTKL of Dallas, Texas, one of the nation’s leading health care architectural firms, and Kansas City’s own J.E. Dunn Construction, a leader in national health care construction projects, will ensure the special character of the Center for Advanced Heart Care is maintained.

The project will add 123,000-square-feet to the building’s current 238,000-square-foot size.  The project should be complete, with the 7th floor 32-bed telemetry unit open for patients, by the summer of 2012.

Hospital inpatient volume was up approximately 8 percent in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

“Each time we add beds, we will increase the staff of nurses, allied health and support staff to ensure the quality of the patient experience,” said Tammy Peterman, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at The University of Kansas Hospital. “We will add staff prior to the opening of the new patient care area in 2012.  A typical unit this size may have 60 to 100 employees.”

The University of Kansas Hospital is the region’s premier academic medical center, providing a full range of care. The hospital is affiliated with the University of Kansas Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, and their various leading edge research projects. The constantly growing facility contains 583 staffed beds and serves more than 24,000 inpatients annually. The cancer program is part of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, based in the region’s largest outpatient cancer facility, the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion, located in Westwood, Kansas, 1 ½ miles from the main hospital.  The hospital has received Magnet nursing designation, reflecting the quality of care throughout the hospital, an honor awarded to only 3.5 percent of the hospitals nationwide.  The hospital also houses the region’s only burn center, liver transplant program and the area’s only nationally accredited Level I Trauma Center.