Hospitals usually treat headaches, but Wesley is creating one — for good reason

Wesley Medical Center usually treats headaches, not causes them, but management says this headache is going to be worth it.

The hospital is about to start major construction that will result in increased visitor parking and create the first grand lobby main entrance it’s ever had.

“We know this is going to be extremely disruptive for everyone,” said spokesman Dave Stewart.

However, he said, “We’re really excited about what this looks like on the other end.”

The project is expected to take about two years.

Demolition starts Tuesday on the visitor parking to the north of the hospital at Hillside and Murdock.

With 1,359 parking spaces, the new $65 million garage will have 466 more spaces than the existing one. There also will be an extra 20 spaces for motorcycles.

During construction, Wesley’s main entrance off of Hillside will be closed.

The Wesley Birth Care Suites entrance will remain open, but Murdock just east of it will be closed. It also will be closed just west of Rutan.

Anyone trying to access the Wesley Medical Arts Tower or the Associates in Women’s Health offices can still enter from the east.

During construction, patients and visitors of the hospital and the Medical Arts Tower can use the employee parking garage, which is on Rutan halfway between Central and Murdock.

There also will be more parking at the lot on the northwest corner of Central and Rutan.

There’s an entrance to the hospital just off of this lot that will serve as the main Wesley entrance during construction.

There is a patient admissions department just to the right of the entrance along with an information desk.

On the west side of the building along Hillside, there will be construction to create a two-story atrium that will serve as the main hospital entrance once work is completed.

“It’s going to be really nice,” Stewart said.

Emergency room parking isn’t going to be affected during construction.

In addition to rerouting patients and visitors to new parking, the hospital had to create a new plan for employee parking, too.

At the employee parking garage where visitors are now going to park, the top two floors still will be for employees.

Stewart said there’s ample room for visitors on the floors below.

There’s also a new employee lot at Central and Rutan where a finance building formerly was. There’s also a lot at the northwest corner of Hillside and Murdock.

Wesley also owns a parking lot behind Panera across Central and will have a shuttle to take employees back and forth.

Employees will be assigned a lot based on their departments. Stewart said Wesley tried to arrange employee parking designations as close as possible to where their departments are located.

In summer 2024, The Eagle reported that a visitor to the main Wesley parking lot was alarmed to see various support structures that seemed to be holding up parts of the garage.

At the time, Stewart said the structure was completely safe but nearing the end of its life.

Originally, it looked like construction on a new garage might start around this time last year, but Stewart said the “project impacts so many things at the hospital . . . it just took time.”

“We’re really trying to focus on the end benefit.”