More hospital beds — and thousands of jobs in the rapidly growing medical field — will arrive in Gwinnett County in the form of new, $400 million facilities.
On Tuesday, Northside Hospital Gwinnett officials provided details on the Lawrenceville location’s expansion at the construction site.
A new 10-story tower will add 132 inpatient beds, increasing the inpatient capacity of Northside Hospital Gwinnett to 520. The expansion will also include a five-story, 143,828-square-foot medical office building to house outpatient imaging. The construction completion date is scheduled for 2025.
Debbie Mitcham, the CEO and president of Northside Hospital Gwinnett and Duluth said the tower will provide much-needed hospital beds in the second-most populous county in the state.
“To be a partner with the county, we have to build the infrastructure, to make sure that the patients can be treated here and not have to leave the county for health care,” Mitcham told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the event next to ongoing construction.
Jay Dennard, the chief operating officer of Northside Hospital Duluth and the vice president of Physician Services for the Northside Hospital Gwinnett system said the decision to expand came after the county saw population growth. The COVID-19 pandemic also played a role, as more patients had longer hospital stays, he said.
“As we’ve seen the inpatient hospitalizations from COVID decline, we’ve still needed to add beds, because we’re expanding key services in the community as well,” he said. Dennard said the hospital will add cardiovascular, neurology and orthopedic care services.
Dennard estimates the tower will add at least 5,000 new jobs to the hospital, which could encourage further economic development in the area.
“We look to be world-class health care,” Mitcham said. “Everything that this community needs, we want to provide it on this campus.”
Credit: Courtesy: Northside Hospital
Credit: Courtesy: Northside Hospital
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