By Patrick Crowley
and Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

EDGEWOOD - St. Elizabeth Medical Center South will build an eight-story patient tower, expand its emergency room and construct a freestanding outpatient surgery center as part of a $72.5 million expansion announced Friday.

The project will add 300,000 square feet of space to the hospital's sprawling medical campus here, increase the size of the emergency room by 40 percent and add new outpatient beds, operating rooms and other services. Planning for the project began after St. Elizabeth conducted a study on what services will be needed to meet the community's health care demands over the next five to seven years, said Joseph Gross, the hospital's president and CEO.

"This major expansion is critical to meet the needs of our patients and fulfill our mission for the future," Mr. Gross said in a statement released Friday.

"The increase in patient volume we have seen over the last few years has already put a strain on our capacity, particularly in the emergency department and inpatient units in Edgewood."

The St. Elizabeth Board of Trustees has already approved the project. The hospital will borrow money through a public bond issue to finance construction.

St. Elizabeth is the latest Tristate hospital to announce expansion plans.

In August, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center completed a $155 million expansion, which includes an eight-story patient tower. That project was four years in the making.

Bethesda North hospital has a $29 million expansion under way that will increase its operating room capacity by about 30 percent. Most of that project will be completed by this summer, although some of it won't be finished until 2004.

To the north, Mercy Hospital Fairfield recently broke ground on a $54.6 million expansion that will double the hospital's size, allowing it to become more of a regional medical center for the fast-growing suburbs.

Meanwhile, Middletown Regional Hospital has plans to build an entirely new building - for between $150 million and $250 million - off Ohio 122, east of Interstate 75 in Warren County.

St. Elizabeth serves about 400,000 patients a year, primarily in Boone, Kenton, Campbell and Grant counties, but also some from Southwest Ohio, said spokeswoman Karla Webb.

Citing U.S. Census figures, Mr. Gross said Northern Kentucky's population is forecast to grow by 18 percent by 2010. St. Elizabeth also operates hospitals in Covington and Grant County.

In October, HealthGrades, a Lakewood, Colo., provider of health care quality that annually analyzes 5,000 hospitals, ranked St. Elizabeth the No. 1 cardiac care hospital in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, and among the top 5 percent in the nation.

In November, Fit Pregnancy magazine ranked St. Elizabeth as one of the top 10 hospitals in the country. No other Greater Cincinnati hospital was in the top 10.

Preliminary work on the $61 million, eight-story patient tower has already begun. It will be fully functional by 2005. The hospital has not determined how many new employees will be hired. "But when services and facilities expand, staff typically does as well," Ms. Webb said.

The project includes:

• Expanding the emergency department by 40 percent.

• Increasing the capacity of the cardiology and radiology services.

• Expanding services of cardiology and radiology services.

• Adding a 24-bed intensive care unit.

• Expanding the cardiac surgery recovery and family waiting area.

Preliminary work has also begun on the $11.5 million, 42,000-square-foot Outpatient Surgery Center, which will be built at Thomas More Parkway and South Loop Road on land adjacent to the hospital. It will include four operating rooms that will offer outpatient surgery in orthopedics, general surgery and neurosurgery.

It is expected to be completed by the end of 2003.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com