BALTIMORE — Mercy Medical Center will be adding a new floor to help increase hospital bed capacity to address the coronavirus pandemic.
In response to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s call on Monday to increase hospital bed capacity statewide to address COVID-19, Mercy Medical Center sought and received an Emergency Certificate of Need approval from the Maryland Health Care Commission to construct a new 32-bed acute care unit on the 17th floor of the hospital’s main inpatient facility, The Mary Catherine Bunting Center in downtown Baltimore.
Mercy will invest $12.5 million in the project partnering with The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company which will provide short-term financing to allow the project to move forward immediately.
Project construction will begin immediately and is expected to be completed in 75 days.
The Bunting Center is currently licensed at 183 beds with existing physical capacity to expand to 251 beds to meet future demand and will add an additional 32 acute care beds following completion of the 17th floor Emergency CON project.
“Mercy is committed to doing everything we can to serve our community and create additional capacity to provide critical health services during this crisis,” said Thomas R. Mullen, President & CEO of Mercy Health Services. “This project is a major investment during a time of great uncertainty but it’s the right thing to do and will be essential to address the potential surge in patients in need of hospitalization in the future as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
