Chesco Hospital prepares for changes
WEST GOSHEN >> Chester County Hospital is about to begin work on the largest expansion in its 125-year history.
The hospital outlined plans for the 276,000-square-foot expansion project.
Susan Phillips, senior vice president of public affairs for Penn Medicine, on Monday said the project will take about two years and will cost about $90 million to complete. Penn Medicine acquired Chester County Hospital in 2013.
The project includes:
• 15 suites;
• Three high-tech labs for catheterization and electrophysiology;
• 10 additional emergency department rooms that will have doors and walls, not curtains, separating beds;
• New areas for non-invasive cardiology and pre-admission testing.
In addition, the hospital has plans for a second phase that would put 96 inpatient beds on top of the new procedural platform where the new operating rooms and cath labs will be located. The cost of adding those rooms would be above the $90 million for the other upgrades, modern operating room said Lisa M. Huffman of Penn’s marketing and communications department. The hospital, which sits in both West Chester borough and West Goshen township, would need West Goshen’s approval for the second phase of the project, Huffman added.
The hospital plans to close its current main entrance and a portion of its visitor parking lot on April 12 so that it can begin construction, Huffman said. When that happens, the hospital will open its historic front entrance as its main entry point for visitors. Over the past year – in anticipation of the expansion project starting – the hospital opened a new parking garage and renovated its historic front lobby.
In the past few months, it has been making improvements to its driveway that is located where East Marshall Street meets Convent Lane and the parking lot outside the old front entrance. In March, it will increase the number of parking spaces outside its Emergency Department and improve the pedestrian walkways on the property.
When Penn acquired Chester County, it agreed to spend $130 million on capital improvements in its first five years of ownership.
The new work comes relatively soon after another expansion project. About three years ago, Chester County completed the 93,000-square-foot Lasko Tower, which added 72 rooms for heart patients whose vitals require monitoring, plus a mother and baby pavilion and an orthopaedic/surgical recovery unit. Lasko Tower was a critical first step in the hospital’s bigger plan, Chester County Hospital CEO Michael Duncan said.