Edward Hospital looking to expand in Naperville

Edward Hospital officials say patient demand is driving their push for a $63.7 million addition to the Naperville campus.

Edward has submitted an application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board seeking to add two floors of patient beds to the west building.

The request calls for a new third floor with 36 beds for orthopedic and spinal patients along with a physical therapy gym. The new fourth floor would include 24 intensive care unit beds and a storage area.

“We’re growing and more patients are choosing Edward every day for their services,” said Brian Davis, vice president of marketing and government relations. “Our emergency room volumes in Naperville and Plainfield have increased significantly due to our phenomenal staff and equipment.”

Davis said he hopes to have the proposal before the board early next year.

If the state approves, construction would begin in the spring and end in late 2013. The addition would increase the number of patient beds at Edward from 309 to 357, along with 101 more at Linden Oaks, Edward’s behavioral health hospital.

“Essentially this would make Edward a campus of just more than 450 hospital beds,” Davis said.

Also in 2012, Edward expects to open Illinois’ first Ronald McDonald Family Room in late February, unveil a hybrid cardiovascular operating room and hyperbaric treatment rooms on the Naperville campus, and finish one-story additions to existing inpatient wings at Linden Oaks at Edward.

Edward also remains “prepared to develop a hospital in Plainfield in the future,” he said, although officials have indicated the regulatory and economic climate isn’t right at this time.