By Dan Hounsell

Despite the economic uncertainty resulting from the 14-month COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s healthcare systems continue to announce plans for expansions and new construction projects.

In New Jersey, a new University Hospital in Newark should include modern operating rooms, a stroke center, additional space for liver transplants, and innovatively designed areas to better support primary care and help address underlying social issues like poverty, housing challenges or poor nutrition, according to NJ Spotlight News. That is the vision of Dr. Shereef Elnahal, University’s president and CEO, and it comes with an estimated price tag of $1 billion.

The existing 42-year-old facility suffers from occasional flooding and regular overcrowding in the emergency room, officials note, and is not built for today’s team-based approach to medicine. The 519-bed hospital is the region’s Level 1 Trauma Center and functions as a critical caregiver for a large number of low-income and Black and brown residents.