Swedish Medical Center’s Issaquah campus may be certificated for 40 more beds by the end of October, Executive Director Dr. Rayburn Lewis said.

The hospital already has capacity and is licensed for more than 170 beds, a number Swedish Issaquah will grow into by 2018, Lewis said. Currently it fills less than half that — 80 beds. But the beds the hospital will gain when it gets the go-ahead from the state Department of Health are ready to go.

“We essentially have two floors unused right now,” Lewis said. “The beds and other equipment and everything we need are there. And they’ll be ready for use as soon as we have approval to use them.”

It’s all part of Swedish’s plan for growth intended to match that of the Issaquah Highlands.

Swedish opened in 2011 as the lone building on its portion of the Grand Ridge overlooking Lake Sammamish. That’s no longer true. Commercial and residential construction rings three sides of the building and the Ridge’s population continues to grow toward the 10,000 residents anticipated by the time the Highlands builds out.

The hospital itself has become the second most productive Swedish campus in terms of child deliveries, expecting 1,500 births by 2014’s end. Swedish Issaquah’s bread and butter specialties are natal and pediatric services, orthopedics and oncology — “babies, bones and cancer,” Lewis said — with support for other specialties like cardiology, neurology and physical rehabilitation.

Swedish is considering other specialties that could be safely relocated from its Seattle hospitals to small, community hospitals like the Issaquah campus — but they’re not ready to publicly discuss which services could make the shift, Lewis said.

As services and doctors are added, the hospital will construct a second building on the north side of Northeast Blakely Drive to move its administrative services.

Swedish has just completed a $130 million capital campaign from its charitable donors. Lewis said he wants to cultivate a charitable base in the Highlands to support Swedish Issaquah in the future.

“The population here is fairly young,” he said. “With young families you have to develop a culture of giving.

“We want to develop that sense of charity and charitableness.”