CoxHealth enters $200M, 15-year project

The company’s board of directors approved the project Feb. 16, and construction is scheduled to begin next month. The entire project is expected to cost at least $200 million over the next 15 years, according to a hospital news release.

First on the construction agenda is a redevelopment of the system’s north hospital campus to create CoxHealth Medical Park and to transfer some of that campus’ services to other Cox facilities.

The new north campus will have three freestanding buildings – the Cox College of Nursing and Health Services, a new Behavioral Health Center, and a Family Medicine Residency facility that will offer imaging services and 24-hour urgent care.

Plans also call for renovations to the Medical Tower, a 10-story office building that will house physician offices, as well as some services formerly based at Cox North, including outpatient diabetes care, dialysis and occupational medicine.

Cox North’s medical/surgical services will be transferred to the Cox Walnut Lawn hospital campus, where urgent care hours will be expanded, and imaging and endoscopy services will be consolidated at The Martin Center, adjacent to the Cox South campus.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to begin next month and should be complete by October. During that phase, services from the north campus’ K and L wings will be consolidated and relocated. The four-phase redevelopment of the campus is scheduled for completion in five years.

CoxHealth President and CEO Robert Bezanson said in a news release that jobs and services will not be compromised as a result of the project.

“Everyone should continue to have a job,” he said. “Obviously, some workplaces may move to different locations in the system, but jobs will not be going away from anyone.”

By 2021, CoxHealth is scheduled to have expanded its Walnut Lawn inpatient and urgent care services and its south campus emergency room, among other redevelopment projects.

Officials cite an aging and growing population as reason for the project.

See SBJ's Feb. 27 issue for more on Cox's redevelopment plans.