Sarasota Memorial Hospital plans to more than double the amount of bed space in North Port’s first hospital as it looks to keep up with growth, while keeping future construction costs down.
Watch FOX 4’s Hunter Walterman go one-on-one with the new president of SMH North Port:
Sarasota Memorial Hospital expands plans for North Port’s first hospital
The SMH board voted to add three additional floors of shell space to the planned hospital off Sumter Boulevard near the I-75 interchange. That increases the size of hospital from six floors to nine floors, and more than doubling the number of inpatient beds from 100 to 208.
But, the floors won’t be used right away. Instead, they will sit empty in anticipation of future growth. The idea is to make expansion easier in the future, according to Jeff Wesner, SMH North Port’s president.
“We do expect to expand quickly,” Wesner said. “And this allows us the best position to be able to do that, without having to bring cranes back out and be building on top an operating hospital.”…