Broadlawns Medical Center will expand its medical facilities by adding a third, 41,900-square-foot floor to the hospital’s Sands Building, the Des Moines hospital announced today. 

With the addition, Broadlawns will shift to single occupancy medical-surgical rooms and an improved intensive care unit and family birthing center. Broadlawns is also renovating its 7,400-square-foot oncology and hematology center to provide an enhanced environment for cancer patients to receive care, according to a release. 

“By adding a new floor to the hospital, Broadlawns will be better equipped to provide the highest standards of healthcare for our hospitalized patients,” said Jody Jenner, Broadlawns president and CEO. “Broadlawns is the only hospital in Des Moines and one of only a few in the state that still has double occupancy inpatient rooms. The shift to single occupancy rooms is significant for our patients and will accommodate privacy, improved clinical outcomes and cultural sensitivity.”

The inpatient medical-surgical unit will have 49 beds, the ICU six beds and the family birthing center eight beds. Construction of the new floor is scheduled for November, with an estimated completion in the summer of 2020. The remodeling of the oncology and hematology center will begin in August and the estimated completion date is late spring of 2019.  

The Broadlawns board of trustees has approved $29 million from operational reserves to fund the projects. Additional funding is being raised by the Broadlawns Medical Center Foundation to equip the new facilities. 

As the community’s safety net hospital, Broadlawns ensures that healthcare is accessible to everyone in the community. More than half of Broadlawns’ patients use Medicaid or have no measure of health insurance. Additionally, Broadlawns attends to the healthcare needs of a culturally diverse patient population with more than 40 languages spoken each week.

Broadlawns’ last significant expansion was completed just over a year ago. In March 2017, the 72,000-square-foot Broadlawns Medical Plaza opened on the east side of its main campus on Hickman Road. That building houses a family health center, mental health clinic and dental clinic.