State green lights more Edward Hospital expansion

Edward Hospital received state approval Tuesday to begin work on a major chunk of a five-year, $200 million renovation of its Naperville campus.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board approved Edward's $81 million proposal to build a two-story addition to its west wing, renovate its surgical suites and add 12 intensive-care unit beds.

The addition will be home to the hospital's intensive-care unit and a nursery. Six neonatal intensive-care beds will be eliminated during the renovations, officials said.

"This approval will allow us to continue to be one of the largest birthing centers in Illinois, including the highest level of care for newborns, and a leading provider of minimally invasive surgery and intensive-care services," said Brian Davis, vice president of communications. "We are very pleased that the major element of our ... makeover was approved."

Last fall, Edward received state approval for a $17 million plan to add 14 obstetrics beds and nine intensive-care beds to its main building near downtown Naperville, as well as a new 30,000-square-foot outpatient cancer center in Plainfield.

The cancer center will cost about $18 million and use both new construction and some of the unused space in the existing Edward Plainfield Outpatient Center. The cancer center joins the campus' outpatient medical services center and surgery center, which is slated to open in the spring.