On Sept. 25, the Memorial Hermann Health System announced plans to upgrade and expand services at its Sugar Land Hospital by adding two buildings totaling more than 200,000 square feet.

"The tremendous growth in Fort Bend County is driving investments from all major industries," said Greg Haralson, CEO of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital. "Our hospital expansion is a needed investment designed to keep pace with this growth."

The $93 million expansion will be completed in three phases beginning with renovations and technology additions to the existing facility.

Phase 1 includes the addition of eight new beds to the hospital's Emergency Center, bringing the total to 26, along with the construction of a new surgical site. Additional space for future surgical sites will also be constructed. The first phase of development is slated to be complete by mid-2014. The project will expand the number of operating rooms from eight to 12 and will also implement new MRI and CT equipment for diagnostic imaging services.

Phase 2, which is expected to break ground in November 2014, will construct a 100,000-square-foot professional office building for new and existing staff that will also house sports medicine, rehabilitation services and outpatient imaging.

Phase 3—also scheduled to begin in fall 2014—will consist of a new 120,000-square-foot patient tower to be built on the northeast corner of the existing 25-acre hospital site adjacent to the Grand Parkway. This phase will increase the number of intensive care unit beds to 14 and will add 16 beds to the intermediate care unit. The six-story patient tower will have room for future expansions and is expected to house more than 200 beds upon completion.

In addition to creating more space, the project is expected to allow the expansion of hospital services, particularly in the fields of orthopedics, sports medicine, cardiology, neurosciences and pediatrics, Haralson said.

"We must have the necessary capacity to exceed our patients' expectations regarding excellent care and state-of-the-art technology," Haralson said.

This is the first expansion to the Sugar Land Hospital, which is located at 17500 W. Grand Parkway, since it opened in 2006, according to the Memorial Hermann Health System. The expansion comes on the heels of other growth initiatives within the system in The Woodlands, Katy, Pearland and northwest Houston.