This story by Lukas Dunford was first published by the Valley News on Aug. 28.
LEBANON, N.H. — Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center has begun another multimillion-dollar expansion of its five-story patient pavilion.
The expansion is set to double the 64 beds currently in use in that section of the hospital, Tom Manion, the medical center’s chief operating officer, said in a Thursday video interview.
There are currently 460 inpatient beds in the medical center, according to Dartmouth Health spokesperson Cassidy Smith.
“We do have patients that we’re not able to serve because we’re at capacity,” Manion said.
Following the 240,000-square-foot pavilion’s opening in 2023, this expansion, which began in April, is set to be carried out over yearslong phases on two currently empty floors of the building.
After the final phase of the project, which is planned for 2028, the medical center will be able to admit an additional 4,500 inpatients annually, Manion said. Compared to current rates, this would be an increase of around 12% to 14%, Smith wrote in an email Thursday.
With an aging New Hampshire population, currently the second-oldest state in the nation, the departments set to expand are those that older adults need most: cardiovascular, neurology, oncology, transplant, surgery and general medicine.
Of the 64 new beds, 32 will expand the cardiovascular department, David Duncan, the vice president of facilities management for Dartmouth Health, said on Thursday’s call.
The cardiovascular expansion “is directly related to the age and population,” Duncan said. “As people get older, there’s more heart issues.”
The 32 other new beds will be a combination of neurology and general medicine beds, Duncan said. The particular department of the beds isn’t set in stone, as they can change based on the current needs of the population.
The expansion will also place related departments beside one another, so patients and staff can easily respond to changing needs. For example, the intensive care unit will be relocated to the third floor beside the specialty care unit, which is one step down in severity from intensive care, allowing for movement based on patients’ needs, Manion said.
Locating related units neighboring each other also allows for more “collaborative care” between different levels of physicians and nurses, according to Manion.
Despite health care workforce shortages, medical center officials “feel pretty comfortable in general about the direction we’re heading,” Manion wrote in a Wednesday email. “We have offers made, we have staff coming, etc. But we have some more recruiting to do.”
