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On Wednesday, Jan. 10, construction workers installed the final steel beams for the expansion of the Medical Center.

To best serve and accommodate patients that need advanced care, the medical center expansion includes three main elements:

• Renovate and expand the Emergency Department. The expansion will increase UVA’s Emergency Department capacity from 43 beds to approximately 80 beds. It will also include dedicated space for mental health services as well as additional space for a clinical decision-making unit to assess whether patients should be admitted, observed, or discharged.
• Expand UVA’s interventional services for patients needing surgeries or other procedures. This will enable team members to care for patients more efficiently by creating additional space and consolidating the interventional services on a single floor. The project will add four new operating rooms, three new procedure rooms and greatly expanded prep, recovery and support spaces.
• Build a six-story tower on top of the expanded Emergency Department and interventional space. UVA plans to build out three floors now to accommodate conversion of most of the Medical Center’s semi-private rooms to private rooms. The top three floors will be built as shell space for additional expansion in the future as needed. A helipad will be located on top of the tower.

The new section of the Emergency Department and the interventional areas are scheduled to open in summer/fall 2019, with the new patient rooms slated to open in early 2020. Renovations are scheduled for completion in 2021.

Several team members signed or left short notes on the beams over the past couple weeks. Those at the ceremony, including Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Richard P. Shannon, MD, added the final signatures immediately before the beams were hoisted into place by a crane.

The beams are located at the top of the elevator shafts.