To address a growing need for outpatient services, such as X-rays, scans and lab work, and a decline in inpatient services, Johnson Memorial Health is embarking on a $42 million project that will grow and redesign the Franklin campus.
The county-owned hospital is replacing the original hospital building from 1947 with a new emergency and outpatient services facility on the east side of the campus. On the west end, a new rehabilitation center is being built. The project is the largest in Johnson Memorial’s history.
The project is the result of a years-long feasibility study that considered capacity and safety issues and projected population growth, hospital officials said. Construction is set to begin next year and finish by 2020, according to a news release from Johnson Memorial Health.
The expansion is being paid for mostly with savings the health network has built up in recent years, said Larry Heydon, Johnson Memorial Health president and chief executive officer.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryIn the past several years, other hospitals, such as Community Hospital South and Franciscan Health Indianapolis, have both completed multi-million dollar expansion and renovation projects. Johnson Memorial Health recently completed a $7 million project to redo the main entrance and cafeteria and make heating and cooling improvements, but has not done an expansion and renovation project as large as other health networks, Heydon said.
That has meant Johnson Memorial has not kept pace with other hospitals, but has also built up a savings, he said.
When the original Johnson Memorial Hospital was built in 1947, it was geared toward inpatient hospital stays, but health care needs are changing, Heydon said.
In the past five years, the hospital’s inpatient stays have decreased 12 percent. That is due to both the evolution of medicine, and the scrutiny put on hospital services by government and private insurance providers, he said.
At the same time, outpatient services, such as lab work and radiology, have increased 19 percent in the last five years, Heydon said.
In order to keep the hospital county-owned and operating independently, officials had to make a commitment to outpatient services, he said.
That meant two focuses: recruiting new physicians and investing in facilities, Heydon said.
In the past year, construction also began on two physicians offices, both located off U.S. 31, in Whiteland and Greenwood. Those new facilities also serve the need for outpatient services, while also allowing Johnson Memorial to reach patients across the county, Heydon said.
In addition to shifting the focus to outpatient services, Johnson Memorial also needed to add space both now and for the future, Heydon said.
Johnson County’s population in the key areas the hospital network focuses on, including southern Greenwood, Franklin, Bargersville, Whiteland, Edinburgh and Trafalgar, had a double-digit increase in the last 10 years, and are expected to grow another 11 percent by 2026, according to projections.
For Johnson Memorial, that means a 29 percent increase in both outpatient and emergency room services in the next 10 years, Heydon said.
Already, the hospital is feeling cramped with emergency room wait times longer than preferred and rooms cramped due to more patients and more and larger equipment, such as CT scans and MRIs, Heydon said.
The new outpatient center would be 33,000 square feet, with room for laboratory and radiology services, and the new emergency department would be 17,400 square feet with a new ambulance drive and bay.
The second floor of the new center would house a wellness suite, which could be expanded in the future. Johnson Memorial currently provides wellness services to local employers, allowing their employees to receive counseling and education on ways to be healthier, such as weight control and diabetes management. The new wellness suite will allow that program, especially the diabetes center, to grow and be in a more accessible location in the hospital, Heydon said.
Those outpatient services will all be located in an expansion that will be built when the original hospital building on the east side of the campus is torn down, giving a new face to the hospital for visitors and patients coming from U.S. 31 and Interstate 65.
And once the emergency department is relocated, it will free up space for the hospital to move and redesign the maternity ward. Administrative staff and educational rooms will be able to move into the former outpatient services areas, he said.
The new emergency department and outpatient services center is set to be complete in 2019, and then work will begin to remodel the existing space to relocate offices and the maternity ward, Heydon said.
The first project, set to begin in 2017, is on the new 20,400-square-foot rehabilitational center on the west side of the campus.
That new building will include physical, occupational, speech and rehabilitational care, along with orthopedic services. Currently, those services are offered in the immediate care center run by Johnson Memorial off U.S. 31 in Franklin.
But that facility is beginning to run out of space, and the main campus had space, which is why building the new facility there made sense, he said. Officials expect the need for rehabilitation services to also grow in the future, Heydon said.
Relocating those services also allows Johnson Memorial to better publicize those services, and save money from the efficiency of being on the same campus as the hospital, Heydon said.
Before construction begins next summer, officials will be finalizing the plans and getting bids for the work, he said.
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Here is a look at a $42 million project planned at the Johnson Memorial Hospital campus in Franklin:
- 20,400-square-foot rehabilitation facility on the west side of the campus, which will include physical, occupational, speech and rehabilitational therapy services. Rehabilitation services will be moved from a satellite facility on U.S. 31 back to the main campus
- New emergency department and outpatient services building, which will replace the original hospital building built in 1947, which currently houses offices. Those offices will move into spaces vacated by other services, such as outpatient services, moving into new areas
- 17,400-square-foot emergency department, with a new ambulance drive and bay
- 33,000 square feet for other outpatient services, such as radiology and laboratory services on the ground level of the building
- New wellness suite offering counseling and other services for local employees for wellness services on the second floor of the new addition, with room for expansion
- Current emergency department will be replaced by a new maternity services area, which will move from elsewhere in the building
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