Just 16 months after opening for business, Methodist Mansfield Medical Center has announced a $37 million expansion. Construction will happen in two phases and is slated for completion by fall 2009. The first phase, which should be finished by January, calls for the addition of a 36-bed medical-surgical unit and for finishing out the fifth floor of the patient tower for future expansion. Then, the emergency department will be expanded several months later to create a total of 32 treatment rooms. The addition of eight beds wills double the size of the intensive-care unit. Hospital administrators won approval for the project from Methodist Health System, the Dallas-based nonprofit chain that owns the facility. Executives said the hospital was intended from its conception to accommodate growth and noted that patient visits to the emergency department have more than doubled since March 2007. The $134 million, 80-bed hospital opened in December 2006. Methodist Health built the hospital in the hopes of gaining a foothold in the booming region south of Interstate 20, where thousands of people are moving each year to communities such as Mansfield, Kennedale and Midlothian.
Date: 2008-05-02 18:45:28