Bayhealth is asking Dover City Council to approve a major expansion of its campus in the capital city.
Bayhealth officials pitched the plan to council members at a meeting last week. Bayhealth President and CEO Terry Murphy says the goal is to expand the emergency department and add more patient beds, noting the hospital is going to need those beds as the population ages.
“We know that we have a current need of 56 beds that we need currently for the growing population and the aging population today," he told council members. "And by 10 years, by 2032, we're going to need close to 100 more beds in Dover.”
Adding those beds, Murphy says, will take pressure off the emergency department, which often sees long wait times and crowded conditions, especially this time of year. Expanding the space in the emergency department will also help.
“The addition of beds is to make it to where people actually aren't in the waiting room," he said. "But expanding the waiting room and making it a big, better experience is what this initial project is about.”
The $249 million expansion plan’s first phase includes adding two stories to the emergency department building and six stories to its pavilion, which houses patient rooms, bringing that building’s height to ten stories, or about 175 feet. That expansion will also add a second elevator to the building.
Bayhealth will need some help from Dover officials however, including a zoning change and permission to exceed the 150 foot height limit. The city’s Planning Commission is expected to hear those applications later this month, with hearings on the site plan coming early next year.
Murphy says the emergency department expansion could begin early next year and be completed in a year or so. The tower expansion is targeted to open in 2029.
