IU Health breaks ground on Fort Wayne hospital
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Officials from Indiana University Health broke ground Wednesday on the new $421 million hospital in Fort Wayne. When complete, the new facility is expected to employ some 500 workers and bring on about 60 health care providers.
Plans for the hospital were first announced in July.
The five-story hospital will include 140 beds, 17 emergency department exam rooms, six operating rooms, three catheterization labs for advanced cardiac procedures, and up to four endoscopy rooms for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Tom Easterday, chair of the IU Health Board of Directors, told our partners at WPTA-TV that the IU School of Medicine will separate the new hospital from others in the area.
“All the innovation, all the scientific research that’s gone into the medical advancements that the IU School of Medicine has produced, it’s the largest school of medicine in the country, and it’s a major part of IU Health,” Easterday said. “I think the other thing is Riley Children’s Health. It’s a part of IU Health, and we can bring the best pediatric care to this region.”
The hospital will be located in the 9600 block of Lower Huntington Road, near Airport Expressway and I-69. The project also includes the construction of a medical office building that will connect to the new hospital.
The project comes six years after IU Health opened a primary care medical office in Fort Wayne.
Fort Wayne businessman Chuck Surack attended the groundbreaking ceremony and said the hospital fills a major need in the region.
“We need more health care. It’s hard to get appointments with doctors now and hard to get into the hospitals, and so IU Health will be another point for our citizens to have great access,” Surack said. “The south side is growing, and if you look at the other part of south side, we’ve got the Google plant that’s going up and all the investment that’s going across the south part of Fort Wayne. So, it just makes sense that we get a hospital on this end and a great hospital like this.”
IU Health said it anticipates welcoming the first patients in the second quarter of 2027.