Broward Health is bucking a trend by investing in inpatient rather than outpatient facilities. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based system plans to add 54 inpatient beds to its hospital in Coral Springs. Population growth in that market, especially among the elderly, justifies the expansion, hospital officials said.
The four-hospital system's board has approved a $56 million plan to expand Broward Health Coral Springs, increasing the hospital's licensed beds from 196 to 250. The proposed renovation would include adding surgical beds and private postpartum rooms in the hospital's maternity wing, as well as moving the neonatal intensive-care unit closer to that wing. The system also plans to improve the campus' central energy plant.
Broward Health expects to break ground on the project in June or July 2016 and to complete the project by mid-2018.
The hospital expects its service area to grow by 37% by 2040, while admission rates are expected to increase by 42%, according to a release. The area of the county the hospital serves is expected to grow nearly five times faster than the rest of the county, so the hospital needs to maintain enough surgical beds to stay competitive, said hospital CEO Drew Grossman.
