The new Emory University Hospital (EUH) bed tower, which is expected to open in 2017, will have nine levels, 210 beds, and approximately 500 parking spaces. A new pedestrian bridge will connect the bed tower with EUH, Emory Clinic, Winship Cancer Institute, and parking decks.

While many specifics remain to be worked out, some details about plans for the tower are now available. For example, patient care units for cancer and transplant (liver, kidney, pancreas) will move to the new building. Once the tower opens, the EUH services currently on 4A, 4B, 5A, and 5B will relocate to newly renovated space in the existing EUH building, and these areas will no longer be used as patient rooms.

The new bed tower is part of a continuum of renovation and expansion projects, some of which are now complete, says David Pugh, Emory Healthcare VP for space design and construction.

For example, the recently renovated EUH emergency department, which now has 34 beds and is twice the size of its previous space, will stay in its current location. Other completed projects include EUH valet improvements that doubled the size of the operation, reconfiguration of the Emory Clinic valet service (better traffic flow and a covered pedestrian bridge from the parking deck), a renovated EUH Admissions and Care Initiation Unit on the second floor, a renovated PACU (pre- and post-anesthesia care unit) on the third floor, and reconfiguration of Woodruff Circle that helped remove 500 shuttles a day from Lowergate Drive.