To meet the health care needs of the Cypress population, Memorial Hermann announced in April it would launch a $25 million expansion effort on its 32-acre campus in Cypress. Work is expected to start in July and wrap up by summer 2019, officials said.

The expansion includes 20 medical/surgical beds, four additional beds for the intensive care unit, an expansion of the procedure area, a second catheterization laboratory and an endoscopy suite, hospital CEO Heath Rushing said. The expansion will utilize space at the hospital's existing south tower and main tower.

Memorial Hermann officials said they decided to build the hospital—which opened in 2017 on Hwy. 290 between Mason and Mueschke roads—because of the need for comprehensive health care services in an area seeing rapid growth. Population in three surrounding ZIP codes—77433, 77429 and 77377—grew by a total of 34,591 people between 2012 and 2016, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Rushing said the improvements are meant to serve more patients as population growth continues to accelerate. “We have exceeded expectations in terms of volume across all of our services,” Rushing said. “It’s a result of the actual volume … that has led to our need to expand. The expansion will help to create a release valve for us to be able to continue to grow and support the community when they need us.”

Part of the improvements also include additional isolettes and equipment for the neonatal intensive care unit, which are used for ill or prematurely born babies, Rushing said. The hospital is pursuing designations to become a Level II NICU and Level III trauma center.

As officials prepare for the expansion, Rushing said they are also focused on building up three areas of service: the electrophysiology program, robotics surgery and catheterization labs, which deal with heart issues and intricate surgeries.

“Those are three programs that we did not have when we first opened … but that we do have opened now and going as we speak,” Rushing said. “We have the latest in technology with the surgical robot, and we have surgeons every day expressing more and more interest in helping support and grow that program.”

More physicians will need to be recruited with the expansion, Rushing said. The hospital currently has 350 employees, a number which continues to grow, he said.

“So far, we’ve been lucky enough to fill those positions, and I don’t anticipate that that will change,” he said.