By Healthcare Facilities Today

Vanderbilt University plans to build a four-floor inpatient expansion on top of the existing structure of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, according to an article on the Medical Construction & Design website.

Each floor of the expansion will add approximately 40,000 square feet. The expansion will bring the Nashville hospital's inpatient capacity to nearly 1 million total square feet. Included in the expansion is the relocation of the hospital’s helipad to the top of the new tower, the article said.

Construction is anticipated to begin in 2015 and will allow the inpatient capacity of the hospital to grow beyond 300 beds. According to the article, the first new beds in this tower will add capacity necessary to care for premature babies and other critically ill children. 

In May 2012, the hospital opened a $30 million, 30,000-square-foot, 33-bed expansion that created capacity for additional acute care, surgical and neonatal intensive care services. This expansion allowed the hospital to expand its Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, as well as its Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care and Congenital Heart Disease program. Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in the region to offer these services.

Read the article.