WellStar Paulding President Mark Haney announced at last week’s Chamber Luncheon that the expansion of Paulding’s 265,000 square foot hospital complex will move forward with two additional floors. The addition comes sooner than had been originally anticipated. And, last week, the WellStar Board approved the plan.
Haney said last week in Dallas that the existing campus had originally been thought to be adequate for at least another year before expansion plans would be considered. But that has proved to not be the case. “We’re already often exceeding 90 percent of our capacity,” Haney said. “These floors will add 56 beds bringing us to 112 beds total.” Haney said that the community of doctors in Paulding has grown over the last year as well.
The state-of-the-art facility opened at Hwy. 278 and Bill Carruth Parkway in April 2014, with 56 beds and 40 emergency exam rooms and an emergency department, cancer center, women’s imaging and surgical and other healthcare services. Paulding WellStar has a height variance [from Hiram] to go three more floors, which allows the new hospital to exceed the number of stories in its original design and to better aligns with growth projections for the site. “[And] we can also build outward on that campus,” Haney said. Haney said that the expansion should put the facility where it needs to be unless growth in the area spikes beyond current expectation. “I think this will carry us for five to ten years. [But] you never know if the economy gets robust and people start moving to the area,” he said. Haney said the timeline on the project starts now and goes through next year. “Technically we’ve started the planning with the architects, I think construction will start this fall sometime,” he said. Haney said this latest phase should be completed and open in late 2016 or early 2017.