This summer, CMC will begin a make-over of its busy corner in the Queen City. A multi-year campus expansion project announced earlier this spring includes a six-story addition to the hospital as well as a new Rite Aid store, and parking and traffic improvements. “CMC has a history of and commitment to meeting the community’s healthcare needs, and our community needs this,” said CMC President & CEO Dr. Joseph Pepe. “On any given day, this hospital is nearly or completely full. The demand for our high-quality services is growing and patients expect nothing but the best from us. This new addition will help us increase access to critical health care services, improve patients’ experience in the hospital, and further our mission of health, healing and hope.” For more than 125 years, Catholic health care has been at the heart of Manchester—growing and changing with the times and leading into the future. CMC is now one of New Hampshire’s largest medical centers, serving nearly 200,000 patients a year and employing more than 3,000 people. The nationally-renowned New England Heart & Vascular Institute (NEHVI) provides patients leading-edge programs and treatment options that are typical of urban, academic medical centers, but in the familiar community setting they trust. “A major focus of this project is to create a world-class destination for heart and vascular care,” says NEHVI Executive Medical Director Dr. Louis Fink. In addition to housing all of the NEHVI services in a centralized location, the expansion will include new operating rooms for cardiac procedures, new cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs, and procedure prep and recovery areas. An expanded emergency department and up to 90 private patient rooms are also part of the plans. When complete, CMC will be able to operate up to its license of 330 beds. The first phase of the project is set to get underway later this summer. That will see partial demolition of the longvacant portion of the Rite Aid plaza, directly to the north of CMC. A new Rite Aid will then be built in the current parking lot, closer to McGregor Street. After that store is open, the rest of the existing plaza will be demolished and construction will begin on the hospital building.