Hospital plans for $85 million expansion

Project details

Depending on how many square feet each physician desires, Barbe said, the professional building could house as many as 60 to 65 offices.

The patient tower will increase bed count from 142 to 200 and double the number of operating rooms, as well as expand the emergency center. Barbe said the hospital is in most need of the surgical space as well as labor and delivery rooms.

"On certain days, we get pretty congested in terms of the operating schedule," he said. "We get all [the surgeries] done, but the additional rooms will definitely help."

The patient tower also allows for three additional stories to be added when necessary. Both additions will be built on the hospital's existing 66-acre campus at 23900 I-10.

The hospital has plans to expand some of its outpatient services in the professional building, Barbe said, specifically sports medicine and rehabilitation and its imaging center, the latter of which currently needs more space.

"As a provider, this gives us more capacity to accommodate growth, which we hope translates into more convenience," Barbe said.

Job generation from the patient tower depends on how fast the hospital fills it, Barbe said, but rough estimates call for 150 new full-time jobs to be created by the tower's second year in service.

Memorial Hermann Hospital Katy's Chief of Staff Dr. Viswanath Kalapatapu said although the hospital rarely, if ever, reaches full capacity on a normal work day, it is important for the hospital to stay in front of competition and relevant in a community with a population growing at about six percent a year.

"Competition is good for a company, because it makes you want to make sure you are doing the right things," he said. "It will be great when we have more beds and we are able to provide opportunities for health care providers to serve the community, including physicians. It's just going to improve patient care."

Keeping up with growth

Population growth has played a significant role in Memorial Hermann Katy's own growth.

"I grew up in Katy and have watched the community continue to grow in the last 30 years; the hospital has to grow with it," Kalapatapu said.

In 2006, the hospital opened at I-10 and Grand Parkway, after moving from Pin Oak and I-10.

"The volume growth far exceeded our expectations," Barbe said.

In the Katy Area Economic Development Council's 2012 annual report, area population increased six percent from about 269,000 in 2011 to about 286,000, and U.S. Census data reports the area's median age is around 35.

Demographics help the hospital determine future demand for specific services and departments, Barbe said.

"One thing is you have a pretty young demographic, and that tends to drive volume for departments like [OB-GYN]," he said.