Image courtesy Banner Health

The six-story patient tower addition at the Banner Estrella Medical Center in Arizona will provide 175 beds and expanded emergency room services.

With nearly 100,000 patients passing through its emergency room last year, the hospital was in need of a capacity increase. The new tower provides additional emergency department space, along with a new cardiac catheterization lab, three new operating rooms, additional medical imaging capabilities and added surgical suites. In addition, crews will remodel the hospital’s existing obstetrical suites and provide additional neonatal intensive care unit capacity.

The estimated 300,000-sq-ft project is expected to generate hundreds of construction jobs over a three-year construction schedule, with Tempe, Ariz.-based McCarthy Building Cos. as general contractor and the Phoenix office of SmithGroupJJR as the design firm and MEP engineer. PK Associates, Scottsdale, is the structural engineer and Littlejohn Engineering Associates, Phoenix, is the civil engineer.

Banner Health has 11 hospitals around the Phoenix valley, and has several additional construction projects underway, including four Banner Health Centers to be built east of Phoenix in Gilbert, Queen Creek, Chandler and East Mesa. Construction of the four centers is expected to total $45.2 million, with Phoenix-based Kitchell as the general contractor and the Phoenix office of HMC Architects performing design.

The centers are based on a model first developed at the Banner Health Center in Maricopa, which opened in May. Four others are currently under construction in west valley cities such as Sun City, Surprise and Goodyear. Services provided will vary by location, and may include family medicine, pediatrics and gynecology. General lab and imaging services will also be available, along with telemedicine capabilities.

Banner also has plans to expand its successful MD Anderson Banner Cancer Center in Gilbert, which was chosen as ENR Southwest's Best Health Care Project in 2011.