PHOENIX (Oct. 23, 2018) –  Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix (BUMCP) will open a new 16-story patient tower that will begin treating patients on Tuesday, Nov. 6. The new tower allows the facility to transition from semi-private to fully private rooms.

The 372,476-square-foot patient tower provides more capacity and capabilities to its flagship facility. It was constructed above the emergency department which opened in June of last year, making it the tallest hospital in Arizona. The patient tower features 312 private rooms, including four ICU floors, seven medical-surgical floors, one shelled floor and a behavioral health floor which will open in late 2019. With the expansion, BUMCP has increased from 733 licensed beds to 757.

Designed with expansion and flexibility in mind, the total tower and emergency department investment was $417.9 million and hosts the infrastructure for two additional towers if needed in the future. The current patient tower will continue to provide treatment but in a private room setting.

“As our community grows, it’s vitally important we grow along with it so we can ensure the highest level of care in a more spacious environment,” said BUMCP CEO Dr. Steve Narang. “The new tower supports our teaching environment and allows us to continue to treat patients in a caring and healing atmosphere while planning for future needs and resources to care for generations to come.”

The new patient tower features:

• All private rooms with private bathroom and shower
• TeleHealth capabilities in all ICU patient rooms
• Patient lifts in every patient room to ensure safety for patient transporting and employee care, as well as portable lifts on each floor
• Recliners and sleeper sofas in each patient room
• Decentralized nursing alcoves and clinical integration stations for easier team collaboration
• Telemetry monitoring capabilities on all floors

The campus opened the new 64,000 square-foot emergency department last year featuring 60 private exam rooms, a new trauma unit that provides specialized medical services and resources for critical patients, and 40 observation beds that serve an additional 20,000 patients each year. MedAire’s MedLink, an emergency support center used to diagnose and treat travelers internationally on planes and yachts, is also be relocated in the new emergency department.

The construction partners on this project included HKS Architects and DPR Construction.

Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix is a large teaching hospital that has provided medical care to Arizona and the Southwest since 1911. It is part of Banner – University Medicine, a premier academic medical network. The hospital, recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s best hospitals, specializes in heart care, cancer care, high-risk obstetrics, orthopedics, neurosciences and stroke care, organ transplants and Emergency care, including a Level 1 trauma center. Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix is part of Banner Health, a nonprofit health care system with 28 hospitals in six states. The institution, which has trained thousands of doctors over decades as a teaching hospital, is the academic medical center for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. For more information, visit   www.bannerhealth.com/UniversityPhoenix.