Lexington Medical Center embarking on major expansion

Lexington Medical Center is planning to add to its campus shortly and is moving ahead on a longer-range strategy to have a similar complex in the heart of the county.

Hospital officials are preparing to seek state approval to add an eight-story, 550,000-square-foot third building on their medical complex at I-26 and U.S. 378 near West Columbia. The addition would be closest to the lower Saluda River of what will become towers of equal size.

Work on the $400 million building could start as soon as next spring if state health officials give it the go-ahead, hospital chief executive officer Mike Biediger said last week.

“This expansion will take care of us for a while,” he said.

The new tower will add eight operating rooms – bringing the total to 31 – as well as 70 new patient beds initially, with more possible later, he said. The hospital now has 414 beds.

It also will be the new home for births and nurseries as well as extra space for patients in intensive care and recovering from surgery, hospital officials said. There also will be more clinics.

Plans for the tower are not final, so it’s too soon to state a completion date, Biediger said.

Once the project is finished, hospital leaders will focus attention on developing a twin of their current campus just west of the county seat.

The new complex isn’t likely to open before the mid-2020s, but the 52.5-acre site for it at I-20 and Longs Pond Road is nearly as large as the current 58-acre complex. Hospital officials bundled three parcels acquired between 2008 and 2012 for $6.3 million to create the new site.

The property is along a major commuter corridor as well as near an industrial area that includes the huge Michelin Tire plant.

Its purchase underscores that Lexington hospital leaders prepare for the future well in advance, health care consultant Lynn Bailey of Columbia said. “They are known for thinking that far ahead,” she said.

The site is in the center of steady growth forecast for the next 15 years in the 758-square-mile county.

County planners predict population will rise from an estimated 275,000 people today to 365,000 in 2030. It is expected to reach 476,000 by 2040, according to some forecasts.

Much of the increase is expected in the middle of the county because of the popularity of top-ranked Lexington 1 schools and the in-town resort appeal of Lake Murray.

Biediger’s explanation for the two-pronged expansion is simple: “Our hospital now is full.”

Bailey concurs, saying the hospital needs to double capacity to keep pace with the population increase coming.

She expects additional facilities to follow, although smaller in scale.

Smaller hospitals of no more than 75 beds surrounded by medical offices – similar to Palmetto Health Parkridge near Irmo – are likely to rise in the western and southwestern parts of the county as growth continues, she said.

Those would be on top of the six health care centers the hospital runs in communities stretching from Chapin on the north to Swansea on the south end of the county.

The new facilities that hospital leaders are planning is no surprise to County Council chairman Johnny Jeffcoat of Irmo.

“They’re pretty much forced to expand to keep up with growth,” he said.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 5:38 PM.