Major Health to put new $89 million hospital along I-74

Major Health Partners will construct an $89 million hospital on the north edge of Shelbyville, after nearly a decade of shifting services to that location.

According to the Shelbyville News, Major’s board of directors voted this week to build a new 300,000-square-foot facility in the Intelliplex technology park along Interstate 74 and move operations there from its current facility in downtown Shelbyville.

Construction on the project could begin as early as next month and take about two years to complete. Messer Construction has been hired as the prime contractor on the project.

Major first revealed detailed plans for the new hospital six weeks ago, but the project could not go forward until the board’s 6-0 vote.

"The new facility will enable Major Health Partners to provide better value in the form of improved quality and lower costs to our patients," Major Health Partners CEO and President Jack Horner said, according to the Shelbyville News.

The new hospital will include 56 beds, all in private rooms, and 38 outpatient observation beds. Major’s current hospital has 72 beds in mostly semi-private rooms.

Far fewer patients stay overnight in hospitals now than they did when Major’s hospital was built in 1980, and that shift to outpatient care has been accelerating recently.

The new hospital will connect to Major’s Benesse Oncology Center, an outpatient cancer center. Major has also opened orthopedic, cardiology and OB/GYN centers in the Intelliplex park.

When completed, the new hospital complex will also have four operating rooms and will house 57 physicians. It will employ a staff of about 930 people.

"The current facilities at Major Hospital do not provide enough space to [care for] the estimated increase in patients in the future years," stated a brochure published by Major Health Partners about the new facility. "It came down to a decision to either invest money in our current building (and become locked in a building that can no longer be expanded) or invest in the future of healthcare at a new location."