By Healthcare Facilities Today

If you build it, they will come. At least that's what it looks like given the amount of construction projects on tap at hospitals across the country, according to an article on the Fierce Healthcare website.

After assessing the area's population and healthcare market needs over the next decade, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey launched a $90 million expansion project that will feature a family birthing center, a new entrance, and a cancer therapy and wellness project when it opens in the winter of 2016, NorthJersey.com reported.

"The population is not growing but aging more rapidly than the rest of the country," Warren Geller, president and CEO of Englewood Hospital, said in the article. "And people over 65 are 10 times more likely to get cancer."

And like other North Jersey hospitals undergoing renovations and expansions, Englewood expects the demand for outpatient services to grow by 80 percent over the next 10 years, Geller said

In central Ohio, several factors are driving the need for hospital facelifts, hospital executives told Columbus CEO - a growing population, increasing service demand, advancing science and patient satisfaction.

For example, at Mount Carmel St. Ann in Westerville, patients and visitors who enter the new main entrance will see a concierge desk, coffee café and a 40-foot stone fireplace that gives "an aura of warmth and compassion," Janet Meeks, the hospital's president and chief operating officer, told Columbus CEO. The $120 million expansion also includes a new patient tower with 60 beds and an integrated cardiovascular center.

Read the article.