Just one year into operation, SSM St. Clare Health Center is in-creasing its inpatient capacity by 20 beds.

SSM St. Clare Health Center, 1015 Bowles Ave., Fenton, is spending $4.8 million for expansion due to high patient volume at the facility, according to a news release.

All beds at SSM St. Clare are in large, private patient suites. The additional suites will increase SSM St. Clare’s capacity to 174 inpatients, up from 154 — a difference of 2,000 patients per year.

“We are gratified that our health care ministry has been so embraced by the community,” SSM St. Clare Health Center President Sherry Hausmann stated in the release. “Beautiful building aside, the volume and growth are a result of the talented, dedicated, compassionate staff and physicians who provide care here every day.

“St. Clare has consistently ranked in the top quartile of patient satisfaction for the past six months. We look forward to this expansion and the opportunity to serve those in need of exceptional health care services.”

This new inpatient wing will be in the roughed-in shelled space on the hospital’s fifth floor that was built in the original construction so the hospital could expand quickly, if needed, and with minimal disruption to surrounding patients.

The unit, which will be dedicated to medical/surgical patients, is expected to open by the fourth quarter of this year, the release stated.

In the past year, SSM St. Clare has hired more than 600 additional staff members to meet demand.

More than 200 physicians have joined the hospital’s medical staff as well, resulting in 850 physicians on staff at SSM St. Clare Health Center.

SSM St. Clare is the culmination of four years of planning in which employees, doctors, patient advocates and architects worked together to create an exceptional healing environment, according to the release.