St. Anthony’s Medical Center, St. Louis, Mo., plans to add 200 beds in what would be the hospital’s largest expansion since 2008, according to an article on the St. Louis Today website.

The project would add a free-standing building that would provide 120 beds for skilled-nursing care and 80 more designated as assisted-living beds.

The goal is to provide a continuum of care, meaning St. Anthony’s patients can receive a number of services from beginning to end of life all in one location, according to a hospital spokesman. The campus is already home to a 20-bed hospice center.

An industry analyst saw the project as a logical move for the hospital.

“Medicare economics are moving in a way that rewards providing and coordinating multiple elements of a patient’s care,” Harrison Brown, consultant for the Advisory Board Co., said in the article.

The move to add the assisted- and skilled-nursing beds also is a way to diversify revenue, Brown said.

Read the article.