Nonprofit Banner Health is investing nearly $400 million in expansion projects already underway at Banner Desert and Banner Gateway medical centers in the East Valley. Both projects include increased services and space for women and infant care.
On the Banner Desert campus in Mesa, the expansion of the tertiary care trauma center will address growth needs to support the community. The project includes adding adult acute care patient beds and building a new women’s tower that will be adjacent to the seven-story Banner Children’s at Desert pediatric patient tower that opened in 2009. To meet pressing patient-care capacity needs, existing shelled space will be built out to bring on 24 adult acute care beds this July. The new women’s tower and other refreshed units are slated for completion in 2023, and an ICU expansion will be done in the first quarter of 2024.
“We are building a women’s tower that will include state-of-the-art services for women and infants, a new women’s surgical services unit, and other medical and surgical units to support the growth of this campus,” said Laura Robertson, CEO of Banner Desert and Banner Children’s at Desert. “With this tower next to our pediatric tower, we will create a focused women’s and children’s strategy to serve as a leader for those services in the East Valley.”
The Banner Desert project, including 148,800 square feet of new space and 102,500 square feet of renovated space, will increase total adult acute beds from 345 to 497. The new tower will create a women’s centered care program and maximize the proximity between women’s and children’s services.
At Banner Gateway in Gilbert, a 351,000-square-foot expansion will essentially double the size of the medical center campus, adding an additional five-story patient tower and new diagnostic and treatment space. Completion of the tower and new space is planned for the first quarter of 2023, and other hospital renovations to support the expansion will be completed in 2024.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, demand has outpaced the capacity at Banner Gateway. This expansion will address the capacity need for women and infant care, including labor, delivery and postpartum, and a new neonatal intensive care unit for babies that need extra care. In addition to women’s services, the expansion includes added space for inpatient cancer care by Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, more space for surgical, emergency, endoscopy and imaging services, as well as shelled space for future growth. When the project is completed, patient beds will increase from 177 to 286, and long-term growth into the shelled space will increase patient beds to 358.
“We are in a high-growth area, and our capacity has been stretched, particularly for cancer care and women’s services,” said Lamont Yoder, CEO of Banner Gateway. “Increasing our capacity for expectant moms who choose Banner Gateway for their delivery experience is a top priority, and so is ensuring capacity for expected future growth of this community in years to come.”
For the Banner Desert project, the architect is Cunningham and the contractor is DPR. For Banner Gateway, the architect is Smith Group and McCarthy is the contractor.
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns and operates 30 acute-care hospitals, two rehabilitation hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, academic and employed physician groups, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services; including Banner Urgent Care, family clinics, home care and hospice services, pharmacies and a nursing registry. Banner Health is in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.
