THREE AREA HOSPITALS have invested more than $87 million in expansion projects designed to alleviate growing pains and provide better service to patients.

Under-the-weather Northsiders already benefit from one project and will soon benefit from two others, which are slated to be completed in late 2008.

Baptist Health Systems is adding a six-story tower west of the hospital on State Street to provide patients with more convenient access to its cardiovascular and women’s health services. And River Oaks Health System in Flowood is adding a four-story complex with 48 new beds to accommodate more patients.

Another hospital on the Northside, St. Dominic Health Services, opened its doors on Dominican Plaza about a year and a half ago. The hospital, located on Lakeland Drive, is now making upgrades at its behavioral services unit and a nursing unit.

St. Dominic Spokesman Keith Buchanan said the facility, which is connected to the main campus by a crosswalk above Lakeland, houses the hospital’s HealthLine Wellness Center, physicians’ offices and some outpatient services.

Work now, he said, includes typical renovating at the hospital to keep it up-to-date and fresh.

But on State Street, “It’s all about convenient access,” Baptist Spokesman Robby Channell said. “We need the space and we need to make it easier for patients.”

He said the addition, a $40 million, 205,000-square foot facility, is expected to be finished in November 2008.

The first three floors, he said, will be home to Baptist’s Cardiovascular Services, which is now located in several spots throughout the hospital. The fourth floor will be dedicated to women’s services. Additional floors will be used for storage and future expansion.

It will feature new entrances for Baptist’s Cardiovascular Services and its Women’s Services, he said.

BAPTIST HOSPITAL officials recently marked a construction milestone with a “topping-out” ceremony after crews installed the tower’s highest beam. The tower will be completed next year during another hospital milestone, Channell said.

In 2008, Baptist will celebrate a centennial anniversary, of sorts. “Next year will mark 100 years a hospital has served in this location,” he said. Baptist didn’t originally own the first hospital there, but took over a few years after it opened, he said.

Ginny Smith, the hospital’s clinical director, said the tower would act as an expansion for the fourth floor and benefit expectant mothers and families with newborns.

She said it will expand its neo-natal intensive care unit, a mother-baby area, and a new feature not found in other local hospitals: a family area for new families to spend the night with their new babies at the hospital.

At River Oaks, officials said an expansion is needed to serve more patients.

President and Chief Executive Officer Davis Richards said the expansion, a $47 million, four-story wing, is now under construction on the south side of the campus near Flowood Drive. He said it should answer many of those needs.

“Rankin County has in excess of 130,000 people, with more families moving in daily,” he said. “We need to provide more space to operate day-to-day care.” River Oaks was completed in the early 1980s. More beds were added in the 1990s, he said.

Several years ago, River Oaks applied for a certificate of need with the state Department of Health to justify the need for an additional 81 beds.

River Oaks Spokeswoman Emily Myers said, the certificate was initially opposed by another local hospital - she wouldn’t release the name - but was eventually approved by the department after a lengthy legal battle.

By the time the certificate was approved, she said, construction costs had increased and the hospital could only proceed with part of the original project. Myers said the hospital is now planning to complete in several phases.

THE FIRST CALLS FOR 48 new beds. Fifteen of those will be for a neonatal intensive care unit and another 16 will be used for women who have recently given birth, Richards said. The new facility will also have a new entrance for outpatient services.

There will be some disadvantages to the construction, though. A popular commons area on the south side of the main building will make way for the facility, as well as the employee parking lot behind it.

Despite not having as many beds as originally planned - and one less spot for breaks - staffers at the hospital say they’re pleased with the prospects of having a less-cramped, less-stressful workspace.

Sherry Cook, River Oak’s chief nursing officer, said the working environment at the hospital is great, but said some days can be hectic. “Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are our heaviest days for surgery,” she said. “We don’t have enough beds for people coming in for surgery when the day begins.”

She said nurses scramble to work with physicians to get some patients checked out and to fill out the necessary mountains of paperwork to do so. She said more beds would give the nurses, who are also responsible for making rooms ready for patients, some relief.

“It will be an escape valve. We’ll have added rooms to put patients in,” she said. “I’ve been here over a decade and I’m excited to see it happen.”