“Our staff and affiliated physicians are extremely proud of providing excellent care to the people who need us,” said Sr. Vice President and CEO of Memorial Hermann The Woodlands and Memorial Hermann Northeast Josh Urban. “With more than a half-million people projected to live within a 10-mile radius of our hospital within the next few years, it became increasingly evident we would need to grow to continue providing the level of care, service and access the hospital has established over the last three-plus decades.”
Memorial Hermann The Woodlands currently treats more than 92,000 patients each year through Emergency Center visits and inpatient admissions. Its current capacity of 397 licensed beds could increase to as many as 535 licensed beds and 30 observation beds upon completion of the project. Parking on the campus, which currently has 2,375 parking spaces for guests, visitors, staff and physicians, will grow to 2,663 free parking spaces when construction is finished.
The centerpiece of the expansion will be the new 332,510-square-foot, eight-floor South Tower, which will include new registration, waiting and observation areas; six additional operating rooms; endoscopy services; a post-acute care unit; a conference center; cardiopulmonary and catheterization labs; a 36-bed patient care unit; an intensive care unit; and three shelled floors for future patient bed growth. It will also include four additional catheterization labs and interventional suites.
The hospital’s main entrance, which currently faces Pinecroft Drive to the west as part of the original facility design, will be housed in the new South Tower and face south toward Medical Plaza Drive. A 7,416 square-foot bridge will connect the new tower to an adjacent parking garage, which will have an additional two levels constructed upon it, providing 332 free parking spaces.
The new South Tower will allow for renovation and expansion of 144,120 square-feet in other areas of the hospital, including food services; imaging; surgery support; pharmacy services; TIRR Memorial Hermann The Woodlands; orthopedic services; and inpatient care areas.
“We are extremely excited at how this will enhance the patient experience, which begins the moment someone enters our facility,” Urban said. “What’s more exciting is all the additional lives we will impact through the care that will be delivered in the new structure.”
With more than 2,600 employees, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands is currently the third-largest non-retail employer and largest healthcare employer in Montgomery County, according to The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership. It is also the fourth-largest employer in North Houston.
The expansion project comes on the heels of several areas of growth at the hospital. Earlier this year, the hospital expanded its TIRR pediatric outpatient rehabilitation services and opened a new neurosciences wing with a dedicated ICU and the area’s only epilepsy monitoring unit. In May, it became the first hospital in Montgomery County to offer transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR), a game-changing minimally-invasive heart repair option. It also achieved official recognition as a designated Level II trauma center in 2018, and was the first in Montgomery County to be officially recognized by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a Level III Neonatal ICU facility in 2017.
Memorial Hermann The Woodlands was recently recognized nationally for quality and safety with the 2019 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award for Large, Specialized Complex Care Medical Centers, ranking fifth nationally in that category. Since 2010, it has been the only ANCC Magnet-designated hospital in Montgomery County, an achievement measuring excellence and quality in nursing earned by only 8 percent of hospitals in the United States.