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

UMass Memorial Health’s North Pavilion facility is located at the former Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center. 

Rep. Jim McGovern toured the facility Thursday to see the use of $1 million in federal funding, which will be used for IT infrastructure and medical equipment. 

The facility will have 72 hospital beds when it opens with additional space for 24 more beds. 

"We're incredibly excited to be able to hopefully open our 72 new inpatient beds here on our University Campus in January, right about when the peak of the cold and flu season whn we need the beds the most," said UMass President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson. "We've struggled for many years to have adequate beds with the growth of Worcester County to be able to keep up with that growth. And this, the largest project in our history, is going to help a lot in terms of being able to keep up with the increase in the number of people that live in Worcester County."

Dickson said even with the addition of the new pavilion, Central Massachusetts still has the fewest beds per capita in the state and the area would still need another 200 to 225 beds to fit the population.