Groundbreaking takes place this month for a 16-story patient tower at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in the Central West End. BJC Healthcare says it will be built at the site of Queeny Tower, which opened more than a half-century ago.
Dr. John Lynch, Barnes-Jewish Hospital's president, said it’s part of the health care provider’s massive overhaul of the Washington University campus.
“It started up on the north campus with the replacement of the old Jewish Hospital with Parkview Tower. It also included enhancements and new buildings for Children's Hospital. It's culminating in the new building on the site of the old Queeny Tower,” he said.
BJC HealthCare is not commenting on cost.
The new 660,000-square-foot patient structure will include cutting-edge medical technology for patient care and the hospital’s cardiovascular program. The past 18 months have prompted BJC to revise some plans.
“There were some adjustments to airflow and some of the mechanicals that will support a future pandemic, if necessary, and so, we’ve learned a lot from the last 20 months,” Lynch said. There will be a focus on minority- and women-owned businesses in the tower construction. Lynch said the goals to work with such companies in the first phases of the medical campus overhaul were met, and he intends to keep that record intact for the rest of the construction.
The new tower will also advance teaching on the campus. "This new environment will better enable our physicians to enhance the education of future medical and health care professionals,” said Dr. Paul Scheel Jr., president of Washington University Physicians, in a statement.
The tower will include 224 private inpatient rooms on seven floors and 56 private intensive care rooms on two floors.
Major patient areas should be ready in late 2025, with other sections opening the next year.
