St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers, based in Beech Grove, Ind., is resuming construction of a new $265 million inpatient bed tower on its far South Side Indianapolis campus.
Although work never stopped completely, the project was slowed considerably last March and the sputtering economy was cited as the reason.
“We're a fiscally conservative organization, but when we decided to postpone last March, we also decided that—once we saw some revival in the national economy—we wanted to go forward,” said St. Francis spokesman Joe Stuteville. After evaluating the current economic climate, Stuteville said the hospital's governance body—the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Board of Trustees—“gave us the green light to continue our work.” In addition to the apparent national economic recovery, Stuteville said the St. Francis staff has worked hard at finding ways to make the hospital operate more efficiently which has made the facility's own economic standing stronger.
The new six-story tower will have 177 medical-surgical beds, plus 30 designated as intensive care and 14 as observation; 10 surgical suites; an expanded emergency department with 68 treatment rooms; and other facilities that are part of a plan to “migrate” inpatient services from St. Francis-Beech Grove to Indianapolis.
