IU Health to build new Bloomington hospital
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) – IU announced Wednesday plans to build a new hospital on campus. It’s a partnership with Bloomington Hospital. Along with a hospital, IU Plans on building an academic building. The buildings will be next to each other, giving students easy access to the facility as well as doctors. IU expects the additions to attract more students.
The new buildings will go right where the IU Driving Range sits, off the 45-46 Bypass near 10th Street.
“We can expand things like nursing, and speech and hearing therapies and all the health programs that we have here on campus,” said Mark Land of Indiana University.
Once the new hospital is built, Bloomington Hospital will close down its 2nd Street facility.
“We will lease the land to them so they will build their hospital and we will build a medical education building, essentially right next door,” said Land.
With a new medical education building, IU expects the number of health education students to double over time.
“We turn down a lot of qualified students because we just don’t have room for them. So, we’ll have room for more students. We’ll be upgrading lab space. We’ll be adding simulation space. It’ll give us a chance to increase our opportunities for our students to work closely with doctors,” said Land.
The goal is to create a one stop shop for med students.
“Over time, we’ve increasingly grown those regional medical schools so that more of them can do four years, all four years and eventually the plan will be for a student if you start in Bloomington for example, you could do all four years. If you start in Lafayette, you could do all four years,” said Land.
The golf course will remain intact. The driving range will be moved adjacent to where it sits now. It’ll remain on the property.
IU has not yet put a price tag on the project. They are working with Bloomington Hospital on finalizing a contract before breaking ground. IU officials said they expect the plan to take several years to complete.