Lexington, KY - 2009: The shell of the University of Kentucky's Albert B. Chandler Hospital, a $700 million project, slowly grew on South Limestone in 2009, reaching its highest point in September. When finished, the new hospital will have 512 patient rooms and 28 operating rooms. It will feature private patient rooms and have intensive care rooms on the same floor as step-down rooms, allowing for easier patient transfers from one level of care to another.
St. Joseph HealthCare continued work on its $60 million Women's Hospital at St. Joseph East, a replacement hospital in London and broke ground on a 40-bed replacement hospital in Mt. Sterling. And Central Baptist moved further into the retail care scene, opening an outpatient clinic at the Wal-Mart off Winchester Road, where everything from flu shots to sprains can be treated.
2010: The Women's Hospital at St. Joseph East, capable of handling 3,000 deliveries a year, will open in March, adding to the hospital group's play for more of Lexington's maternity patients. The freestanding addition will include labor and delivery rooms, a nursery, a neonatal intensive care unit and other maternity services. All of the rooms will be private and have natural light. In addition, St. Joseph-London will open a 120-bed hospital in late summer, to replace an outdated hospital there.
Around the same time, UK will open the first phase of its new hospital - a 58-bed emergency room with a separate waiting room and treatment area for kids and a walkway over South Limestone, connecting the parking garage to the hospital. The rest of the hospital won't begin opening until 2011. Central Baptist is expected to announce a new addition to its main campus sometime in 2010.