Oklahoma City-based Mercy Hospital broke ground Tuesday on a six-story, 228,000-square-foot acute care hospital next to its affiliate, Oklahoma Heart Hospital South, according to The Oklahoman.
The new facility will offer emergency services to help relieve Oklahoma Heart Hospital's overburdened ER.
"We're turning people away on a daily basis because we don't have the bed capacity," John Harvey, MD, president and CEO of Oklahoma Heart Hospital, told The Oklahoman. "I wish there was some way we could make [the hospital opening] happen tomorrow."
Mercy's new 72-bed hospital will cost $150 million and is expected to be completed in 2020.