The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus has named its new nearly $2 billion hospital tower University Hospital. The tower is expected to open in February, according to an internal memo to staff obtained by The Columbus Dispatch.
The 1.9 million-square-foot inpatient tower spans 26 floors and will house 820 private rooms, 234 intensive care unit beds, and 51 neonatal intensive care beds. The top three floors will be dedicated to maternity care.
Other hospital features include reflective spaces, smart beds, digital signs outside patient rooms, and a floor for ICU patients that can be converted to support airborne infection isolation in the event of major public health outbreaks.
The choice of “University Hospital” as the tower’s name is meant to invoke the quality of care the wider community has come to expect from Rhodes and Doan halls, and the Brain and Spine Hospital, according to the memo cited by the Dispatch.
Future facility name changes will follow in a similar vein. Rhodes Hall is set to be dubbed University Hospital–Rhodes Hall, Doan Hall will be University Hospital–Doan Hall, and Brain and Spine Hospital will become University Hospital–Pavilion.
More information about the project is available here.
