Dive Brief:

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has announced a six-year, $11.5 billion expansion of research into and treatment of catastrophic childhood diseases, a program that includes $1.9 billion of new construction, renovations and capital investment at its Memphis, Tennessee, campus.
• The $1.9 billion in the system's 2022-2007 budget will cover almost $1.4 billion in new "strategic initiatives" and $558 million of capital investment into current facilities. St. Jude's plans also include hiring during the first six months of 2022 a new vice president to direct capital planning and facilities management.
• Despite progress in meeting the construction goals of its previous strategic plan of 2016-2021, St. Jude's said it was behind schedule in meeting its space needs.

Dive Insight:

The construction projects St. Jude's is undertaking as part of the new plan also encompass those currently in progress and include:

• Domino's Village, which is a $110 million housing complex for St. Jude patients and families that is already under construction. The facility includes 140 units, a mix of long-term and short-term residences, an underground parking garage, an exterior courtyard and play area and a a pedestrian bridge connecting it to the Memphis campus. Domino's Village is scheduled to open in spring 2023.
• Two new parking garages.
• A proposed $500 million outpatient clinic with attached clinical office buildings.
• An expansion of cafeteria facilities.

On track and scheduled to open this year, according to the Daily Memphian, is a $412 million research tower on the St. Jude campus. The new seven-story, 625,000-square-foot facility, which will double the hospital's existing research space, will include glass-walled laboratory space, a penthouse and basement. The building will also be equipped with special air-handling and sterility equipment for the new labs.

In the last several months, according to Becker's Hospital Review, there were several hospital systems that announced, continued or completed $1 billion-plus projects. For instance, at the beginning of March, University of California Davis Health in Sacramento, California, announced a $3.75 billion plan to build a 16-story, 700-bed inpatient hospital that will replace the system's current facilities, which don't meet the state's new earthquake safety requirements. The new building will double the hospital's current space with the inclusion of more private rooms.

In January, the University of California Irvine said it would build a $1 billion hospital campus that will include a 144-bed acute care facility, an ambulatory care center and a cancer center.

The project, which has won the approval of the University of California Board of Regents,  will feature children's health specialties, a 24-hour emergency department, wellness programs, clinical research space and acute care. UC Irvine expects to be complete with the advanced care facility late next year, the ambulatory care center in 2023 and the hospital in 2025.