WORCESTER, Mass. - A new facility will bring more hospital beds and jobs to Central Massachusetts.

UMass Memorial Medical Center is converting the former Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center into the medical center’s north pavilion.

It'll be a 73,000-square-foot inpatient, acute-care facility with 72 new hospital beds in private rooms at its opening, with additional space for 24 more beds.

The North Pavilion will also add nearly 450 new positions to the medical center. 

"If you look at Worcester County in general, we're underbedded by about 300 beds in total, if you compare us to the rest of the state and where we fall from an average perspective,” said Justin Precourt, the interim president for UMass Memorial Medical Center. “We're significantly behind the east region and slightly behind Springfield and the western region. The 72 beds in addition to some of the other units that we've opened in the last couple of years, we're about one-third to about halfway there."

The hospital plans to open the North Pavilion in January 2025.

They said the goal is to improve the quality of and access to health care for patients.