MONTGOMERY — Bethesda North Hospital plans to break ground Tuesday on a $29 million expansion that would increase its operating room capacity by about 30 percent and feature a large new lobby.

        The project would boost the number of operating suites from 13 to 17, add a seventh cardiac catheterization lab and expand its nuclear medicine services.

        The project also will include a new lobby and gift shop, chapel and an improved area for people to register for blood tests.

        Most of the construction is expected to be complete in summer 2003, but some parts of the project could take until mid-2004, officials said.

        Bethesda North, one of the few large hospitals near Greater Cincinnati's growing northern suburbs, needs to expand to keep up with rising demand. The hospital already has outgrown a 1996 expansion that boosted the number of operating rooms from eight to 13, said Sher McClanahan, vice president and chief operating officer for Bethesda North.

        The expansion comes at a time when many hospitals say they are struggling in many ways, from coping with a nursing shortage to closing operating rooms for lack of anesthesiologists. These troubles have hit Bethesda North, where officials say they will not have enough physician commitments to meet a state-set November deadline to launch a Level 2 trauma center.

        “Staffing will be a challenge, but with this project we will have more operating rooms available during prime time (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and that means there won't be as much strain on staff to stay as late as midnight and 1 a.m.,” Ms. McClanahan said.

        Hospital officials have repeatedly discussed the plans with members of a nearby homeowners association. They also have secured approvals from the city of Montgomery.

        Elliott Fegelman, who is slated to become chief of surgery in July at Jewish Hospital in Kenwood, said he sees no threat from Bethesda North's surgical expansion because there is more than enough demand to go around.

        “This is where the population growth is. To put the institutions nearby to that growth just makes sense,” Dr. Fegelman said.

        How Bethesda could afford to expand is another matter.

        Most of the money for this expansion comes from private donations made to the Bethesda Foundation, Ms. McClanahan said. The rest comes from the hospital's operating budget.

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