Glendale-based Johnson Controls, which has been working with Methodist Healthcare for more than 40 years, Wednesday announced that the expansion plan adds 440,000 square feet to the hospital's campus and includes a new nine-story patient tower to be constructed as an overbuild on top of the existing emergency department. Methodist also will invest in state-of-the-art health care equipment, making the Johnson Controls technology integration system a key component of the new construction.

Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) will provide design-assistance and serve as the single point of responsibility for technology integration from start to finish, providing critical continuity throughout pre-construction, implementation, installation and service of the new tower.

"Given the growing complexity of technology in a rapidly changing health care environment, the solution we proposed and our design-assist capabilities were key components to the project," said James Nannini, vice president North America Building Wide Systems Integration (BWSI), at Johnson Controls. "The fact that the systems integration must take place during construction of the new tower without any interruption of existing services to patients and staff, speaks to the confidence Methodist Healthcare has in our level of competency and our expertise at technology systems integration."

Construction of the new patient tower is expected to begin in January 2017 and be completed in the spring of 2019.