At the end of June, Methodist Richardson Medical Center will wrap up the first phase of a $46 million expansion effort aimed at increasing the capacity of its emergency department.
Marking the third major expansion to the hospital since it opened in 2014, Methodist Richardson broke ground on the project last August with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of beds in its emergency department from 26 to 43.
“The original impetus was just honestly our growth,” Methodist Richardson President Ken Hutchenrider said. “We outsized our [emergency room], and we determined very quickly that we needed to, in essence, double the size of our ER.”
It will do so by constructing and renovating two new floors adjacent to the existing hospital, adding 25,000 square feet of space to the emergency department, including the 17 new beds. In addition, the hospital will move its existing pharmacy and laboratory services space from the first to the third floor, creating 80,000 square feet of new space for emergency use.
“Over 50% of our admissions come through our emergency department, so it’s essentially the front door of our hospital,” Hutchenrider said at the groundbreaking for the expansion project.
Phase 1 of the effort included the opening of 10 emergency room beds. Phase 2, which involves moving the pharmacy and lab space, is expected to happen in September.
Overall, the expansion project is designed to allow the hospital to serve around 90,000 patients annually when construction finishes in August 2024, Hutchenrider said. Currently, Methodist Richardson serves close to 60,000 patients annually. He said the expansion will also help to accommodate the region’s growing population for another 10 years.
“We've had to build so much faster than we ever [thought] we would,” Hutchenrider said.
More capacity, more capabilities
While the expansion project will help to increase the hospital’s capacity, Methodist Richardson officials said they are also looking to increase the level of care it provides for patients.
In addition to Richardson, which had a population of nearly 119,500 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the hospital serves the communities of Garland, Plano, Wiley, Sachse, Murphy and Rowlett.
“This expansion is necessary for our community as well as to provide better care for our patients,” said Beena Mathai, director of critical care and emergency services at Methodist Richardson.
Overall, the population of Dallas County is expected to add nearly 1 million people between 2020-45, according to data from the North Central Texas Council of Governments. In the same time frame, Collin County is expected to add more than 700,000 people.
To better serve that growing population, Methodist Richardson is looking to build upon the level of care it provides while bringing the number of overall beds from 277 to 352 by 2024.
“It's really about being able to provide that higher level of trauma services closer to your home or in some cases right by your home,” Hutchenrider said.
Methodist Richardson is a Level III trauma center, a designation it received last year that means it is able to provide assessment, resuscitation, surgery, intensive care and stabilization to injured patients, according to the American Trauma Society. Jan Arrant, director of community and public relations for Methodist Richardson, said the hospital could reach a Level II designation by the end of 2025. Level II trauma centers can offer definitive care for all injured patients and require things such as 24-hour coverage by general surgeons and other specialists; tertiary care needs, such as cardiac surgery; and trauma prevention education.
Last year, Methodist Richardson was also designated as a comprehensive stroke center, meaning it can treat the most complex stroke cases, according to the Stroke Awareness Foundation.
“There are certain key elements that make communities able to grow and be successful, and access to health care is one of those primary ingredients,” Richardson City Manager Don Magner said via email. “Richardson is very fortunate to have several exceptional health care institutions in close proximity, and Methodist Richardson Medical Center is one of them.”
Mathai said achieving these designations will allow for more patients and problems to be addressed at the hospital, lessening the need to transfer patients or have them make longer drives to hospitals in Plano or Dallas, in turn improving outcomes for patients experiencing things that require immediate action, such as a stroke or a heart attack.
“Getting those designations ... adds value to that hospital,” Mathai said. “We wanted to provide better care and better service in a timely manner.”
Increasing the quality of care
Methodist Richardson is one part of a growing ecosystem of services supporting the city’s growth and helping drive its future, Magner said.
In addition to providing care, the hospital is a large source of local jobs. While it has a workforce of around 1,800 as of mid-2023, Methodist Richardson officials expect to grow the headcount to around 2,100 to fully staff the expansion. That’s around the same number of employees as businesses such as Raytheon, RealPage and Geico have in the city, according to the Richardson Economic Development Department.
“Our goal is just always to continue to provide the health care services that our community needs,” Hutchenrider said. “We continue to fill in [staff] to be able to handle the volume and then have the capacity and the medical staff to support what it is that we already have and where we want to continue to grow.”
Along with being a creator of jobs in the local economy, the hospital is also working to foster future opportunities and innovation. Through a partnership with Richardson ISD, Methodist Richardson helps train students interested in medical professions with students in the district’s career and technical education program able to take classes at the Methodist Richardson Campus for Continuing Care.
Hutchenrider also said the hospital works closely with The University of Texas at Dallas, a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education-designated Tier 1 research university, from an educational standpoint. The research designation means the university has a high level of research in doctoral degree fields that attract large amounts of public and private funding, according to Carnegie. UT Dallas offers medical-related degrees in fields ranging from neuroscience and psychology to biotechnology and biomedical engineering.
“Unique needs and community aspirations will change over time, and our ultimate goal is to continue to evolve and progress with those changes while providing the best services we can,” Magner said. “We will do this by continuing to focus on cultivating collaborative partnerships with key community partners—like our educational and health institutions, continuing cultural enrichment and community engagement opportunities, and continuing to invest in our infrastructure to improve the quality of life for residents and support economic development.”
Hutchenrider added Methodist Richardson officials are always looking ahead to future projects. As the hospital has added new staff, officials have brought on a new thoracic surgeon to provide more lung and chest care along with a new hepatobiliary surgeon to provide more liver and pancreatic care.
“You can receive high-level tertiary care right next to your home, that is the benefit to the community,” Hutchenrider said. “It's just a huge positive for our entire area.”
