Howard County General Hospital’s new 542-space employee parking garage will alleviate the growing demand among both patients and visitors.
The garage at the Columbia hospital, which opened Monday, has five levels and is equipped with various safety measures like emergency call boxes, guard rails, interior and exterior cameras and an elevated security booth that will staffed 16 hours a day, hospital officials said.
“This new garage enables us to improve parking significantly by providing a new safe, spacious, 542-space garage, which will help free up more surface parking for patients and visitors,” said Victor A. Broccolino, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer.
The garage is the first completed part of the hospital’s $105 million, 233,656-square-foot expansion and general renovation project.
The core project component now under construction is a new four-story, five-level patient tower that will include 90 private rooms in the surgical, cardiac/telemetry and medical/surgical units, according to hospital officials.
The hospital, now with 219 beds, will see a net gain of 42 beds when the project is finished.
The total project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2011, officials said.
