IU Health releases plans for overhauled downtown hospital
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana University Health has outlined design plans for a new three-tower structure hospital that will be located downtown.
The new hospital will sit on a 44-acre expansion to IU Health’s campus along 16th Street.
The project is expected to begin next week and will be developed over the next four to five years.
The new design will consolidate operations of Methodist Hospital and University Hospital.
Options call for towers with 14 or 16 floors. There would be up to 672 private patient rooms.
There could be a fourth tower to serve future growth.
IU Health says that combining the hospitals will allow for better assistance to their patients in a cost-efficient and accessible way.
“The new downtown hospital will become an iconic addition to the Indianapolis skyline, representing hope and healing for future generations. Significant in scale and stature, it is designed foremost as a destination for patients, offering leading-edge medicine in a flexible facility that can be reconfigured over time to accommodate advances in medical care and changing patient demand,” Vice President of design and construction for IU Health James Mladucky said in a statement.
The press release does not say how much it will cost to build the hospital. A spokesman for IU Health told News 8 no one will speak on the plans until they are approved by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission. The plans were filed with that group on Thursday.
