DALLAS Memorial Hermann Health System plans a $650 million expansion and renovation of its campus in Houston’s Texas Medical Center, officials announced April 16.
“The board approving this renovation and expansion recognizes that, as the Houston region’s only full-service health system, we must be prepared to stay ahead of the fast-growing advances in medicine, keep pace with the extraordinary growth of our medical staff and meet the health needs of our community,” said Dan Wolterman, president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System.
Construction is scheduled to begin this summer with completion expected in 2018.
The expansion also will provide the campus with an additional 1.34 million square feet, 160 beds, 24 new operating rooms, 16 additional emergency room bays and 750 new parking spaces, officials said.
Six shelled floors and six shelled operating rooms will be built to accommodate future growth with the potential of adding 264 beds.
“We recognize that our community will continue to grow and so will their health needs, so we’re designing the building with a forward-looking perspective to meet those needs,” said Wolterman.
Memorial Hermann had $981 million of debt outstanding.
The health care system carries ratings of A1 from Moody’s Investors Service and A-plus from Standard & Poor’s with stable outlooks.
S&P noted in a March 13 report that the outlook “fully factors in the expectation of additional debt during the outlook period.”
Memorial Hermann was one of the pioneering hospitals at Houston’s Texas Medical Center with its opening in 1946. The TMC has since grown to the largest in the world with 54 medicine-related institutions, including 21 hospitals.
Memorial Hermann recently completed is the 30-story Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza, which is now the largest medical office building in the TMC.
