Memorial Hermann administrators and members of the Katy Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon for the new Memorial Hermann Convenient Care Center.[/caption]

Memorial Hermann continues to expand in greater Katy to meet the area’s growth. The hospital system opened a new convenient care center at 22430 Grand Corner Drive on June 1 and continues construction on a new tower for their hospital located at 23900 I-10.

The Memorial Hermann Convenient Care Center will deliver emergent and primary care for Katy area residents, The $19.1 million dollar building spans 30,000 square feet and will provide primary care services, lab testing, imaging and emergency care to the southeast Katy community.

“Katy is expanding rapidly. We felt like we need to provide an outlet for the growing market,” Memorial Hermann Katy Chief Operating Officer John Kueven said. “We wanted to build a single-stop convenient care center.”

Kueven said patients can walk down a hallway to schedule lab testing instead of being referred to another facility.

“There [are] studies out there that show people don’t want to drive more than three to five miles to have these services,” Kueven said.

The convenient care center is also necessary to ease the burden on the surrounding Memorial Hermann facilities, Memorial Hermann Health System CEO Dan Wolterman said.

“This [facility] will help take some load off our hospitals on either side of this building,” Wolterman said.

To further accommodate growth, the new patient tower being constructed at Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital will double the capacity of the main hospital to further respond to the growth of the community, Kueven said.

“We have more patients than we have beds,” Kueven said.

Kueven said the hospital currently holds 142 beds. By the time the 320,000-square-foot tower is expected to open in December, the number will jump to 199 beds, he said. The tower will continue to populate until maximum capacity, 310 beds, Kueven said.

As the hospital grows in size, so will its services, Kueven said, including the size of the emergency room, and number of operating and maternity rooms.

“We’re expanding every single service we have,” Kueven said.

The process of building the new tower started two years ago and should come to fruition by the end of the year, Kueven said.