CHOMP is set to expand in the next few years with a new wing and parking garage.

A new wing and parking garage are in the works for nonprofit Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, after both internal projections and an independently performed assessment by a consultant within the last year showed the hospital will need to add 24 to 40 new beds by 2030 to meet a growing demand, says Montage Health President and CEO Steven Packer.

“What we’ve seen over the last number of years is the hospital is busier and busier and the hospital is in overflow,” Packer says, adding that the last time they added beds was in 2007. And although more and more procedures are done on an outpatient basis, reducing the need for beds, he says it’s “somewhat the case, but that’s more than offset by procedures that people are choosing to do here locally,” that were once only available in hospitals to the north.

“We’re driven by our community’s need and the community has demonstrated they don’t want to drive up to San Jose or the Bay Area” for procedures like hip replacements and heart surgeries, among others, he says.

As it is now, some emergency department patients wait for hours to be admitted. Parking for patients, visitors and staff has also been a long-time challenge. Where the new wing will be constructed is still being decided between a couple of locations on the hospital property on Highway 68 in Monterey. Packer estimates the new beds will increase capacity by 10 to 15 percent. He says he is confident they have enough water credits to meet the need.

The proposed three-tiered parking garage will sit atop the lower area of the current ground parking lot, more than doubling the current number of spaces from 471 to approximately 1,000. That project will be completed ahead of construction of the new wing.

Inpatient hospital planning can take up to six years, due to the number of code requirements, regulatory agencies and entitlement processes administrators must navigate, Packer says, so they are starting the planning now. Earlier this year, CHOMP hired international architectural firm HDR to create preliminary schematic drawings of the wing.

There is no set budget as of yet, and they won’t have an estimate until there are more details about the size and scope of the project, Packer says. They expect to use a combination of savings, loans and philanthropy to pay for it.

Packer shared the expansion plans with an audience at the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce breakfast on July 30, as well as plans to reduce overall spending by Montage Health by 5 percent over the next 24 months through “increased productivity” and reducing costs. He says details of how that will be accomplished will be shared at a later date.

In the last year, CHOMP and the county’s other hospitals have been called out for being some of the most expensive in the state during meetings of the state’s Health Care Advisory Board, part of the Office of Health Care Affordability, created in 2022.

The board will hold its next monthly meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 28 in Seaside. Montage officials announced on Aug. 6 that they are inviting board members for a tour of CHOMP, “with an opportunity for face-to-face conversation about the hospital’s initiatives to contain costs and expand access in the county.”