UPDATED: Cost of project included below and other updates

Scott & White hospital officials said that because of growing demand in Williamson County, they are greatly expanding their Round Rock hospital a year earlier by adding a third more inpatient beds.

The Temple-based health care system will add 26 beds to its 76-bed campus at 300 University Boulevard at a cost $38.7 million. The project calls for expanding the hospital by 58,000 more square feet mostly by adding intensive care beds and a few intermediate care beds, hospital CEO Ernie Bovio said. Hospital officials also will renovate 14,000 square feet of space and add four operating rooms, for a total of nine; an endoscopy suite, for a total of three; and expand the emergency department from 11 beds to 19.

Future plans for the campus include a patient bed tower and another medical office building, officials said.

Officials expect to break ground in October and have hired architect PageSoutherlandPage for the project. The construction will be done by California-based DPR Construction , which has an office in Austin, and is to be completed in 14 months, Bovio said.

Scott & White opened the hospital in July 2007. The campus includes a 272,000-square-foot hospital, a specialty clinic and imaging center.

“We anticipated this first phase expansion within four years of opening the hospital and we’re moving ahead with those plans a year earlier than projected,” Bovio said earlier in a statement. “There is tremendous demand for medical services in the area … Having the additional capacity in the operating rooms, ICU and emergency department will allow us to better accommodate the needs of our patients.”

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