CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The UVA Health University Medical Center is in the process of adding another expansion, with floors 6-8 currently being built out in the South Tower, which first opened in 2020.

“We are very excited to see the dream of many years ago come to fruition,” UVA Health University Medical Center chief operating officer Min Lee said. “The South Tower was designed with expansion in mind, knowing that the care and the needs of the community would evolve.”

The sixth floor will provide the facility with additional beds for cancer patients, while the seventh floor will be universal and allow the hospital to adapt to future needs. Finally on the eighth floor, the Division of Neonatology will be given an expansion that its director, Dr. Jonathan Swanson, said has been years in the making.

“We have been talking about expanding the NICU for as long as I’ve been here for probably 10, 15, years,” said Swanson. “We’ve always had a need for increased beds. We’ve been turning away patients for many, many years.”

Swanson said the division, which specializes in the care of sick and premature babies, turns away anywhere from “one in five to one in four patients on any given month.” Lee said the uptick in NICU patients was noticed as the Hospital took a “data-driven approach” to determine how best to use the three new floors. 

Given the importance of their work, Swanson said it pains him to have to turn patients away, citing that as a major reason for the expansion which will add 47 more beds. He also said the space was designed to be “more family-centered,” with large windows overlooking the mountains in the majority of the rooms and areas specifically designed for families and kids.

“Having a baby in the NICU is never not a stressful event,” Swanson said. “You could only be in there for only a few hours, but I know it’s going to be a stressful event, so having a place where there’s a place for them to have respite but still be able to be near their child is really, really crucial.”

Swanson said making sure the expansion was state of the art was another top priority. He said UVA has been at the forefront of predictive monitoring, having developed the HeRO system in the early 2000s, which detects abnormal heart rate patterns associated with sepsis in preterm infants. With the advent of artificial intelligence, its potential application in predictive monitoring has become a focus of the division.

“We have a great deal of scientists and clinicians who are invested in learning how to really capture our use of technology and artificial intelligence to really make this a state-of-the-art issue, to help bring the best outcome for us,” Swanson said.

Currently, the new floor is still in the design process, with the team currently in the process of picking out furniture and colors for the individual rooms. Lee said the floors are expected to open in January 2028 with Swanson adding that the hope is for the eighth floor to welcome its first patient in the second quarter of the year.