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When Erlanger Health System began planning its $51 million expansion of its Gunbarrel Road hospital in East Brainerd, hospital officials decided to make the building project as much about improving hospitality as it was about being a bigger hospital.
Bruce Komiske, who joined Erlanger three years ago as vice president of new hospital design and construction, was not happy with the original architectural design for Erlanger East and decided to use the team planning for the downtown Children’s Hospital to design and build the Erlanger East expansion. Architects from HKS and construction manager McCarthy Building Cos., developed an alternative building design to highlight Chattanooga attractions and to offer a more inviting hotel-like feel to the medical complex.
In addition to nearly doubling the number of hospital beds to 107 and adding an intensive care unit to the emergency room, four more operating rooms and a new cardiovascular lab, Erlanger East also added lifestyle amenities for hospital visitors, customers and staff.
“In listening to our patients, visitors and staff, they told us that they wanted not only an excellent medical facility but also a lifestyle campus that enhanced the area with landscaping and recreational opportunities in a campus that reflects and enhances Chattanooga,” Komiske said Tuesday.