Silver Springer
January 31st, 2007, 12:37 AM
Two Md. hospitals invest in expansion projects
Washington Business Journal - January 26, 2007by Vandana SinhaStaff Reporter
Two hospitals in Prince George's County, where a money-losing health care system has dominated recent headlines, are quietly dishing out a combined $112 million toward their biggest expansions to date.
While county leaders try to decide the future of Dimensions Healthcare System, owner of Prince George's Hospital Center and Laurel Regional Hospital, other hospital leaders are putting final touches on plans to enlarge Fort Washington Medical Center and Doctors Community Hospital.
Both hospitals plan to start construction by the end of this year and finish by the end of 2009.
The Fort Washington and Lanham hospitals, spending $58 million and $54 million respectively, are hoping to catch up with the county's growing population. The county, which has seen a 17 percent population rise between 1990 and 2005, also has absorbed patients from D.C. after D.C. General closed down five years ago. [yet another reason for retrocession]
Doctors Community Hospital is building a six-story addition on its east side, dedicating much of its new 8,150 square feet to private rooms for its 186 patient beds.
"It's a pure patient bed project," says Philip Down, president for the 36-year-old nonprofit hospital. "Most health care delivery now is going to family-centered health care. Small semi-private rooms are not conducive to that."
Doctors Community Hospital says shifting from shared to single rooms also helps free up beds previously off limits because they sat inches away from an infectious patient or someone of the opposite sex. "On any given day, 20 or 30 beds would be closed," Down says.
The hospital is keeping oxygen lines intact for additional beds in 61 of the rooms, allowing its physical capacity to total 251 beds. The patient tower will also house new spaces for dialysis, physical therapy, a gift shop and an MRI that formerly called a nearby trailer home.
The hospital plans to leave 26,500 square feet in its first two floors unfinished for administrative offices and diagnostic rooms. Nearly a quarter of that space will be reserved for a future expansion of the hospital's emergency department whenever it can summon up the financing.
Officials with Doctors Community Hospital, which is working with Goodman Associates on the design and Gilbane Building on the construction, say the expansion won't result in more than a slight uptick in its 1,300-person staff.
Fort Washington Medical Center, on the other hand, says it will be adding significant numbers to its 250-person staff after an expansion that will quadruple its space and hike its bed count by nearly 40 percent.
The hospital's dramatic buildout will renovate more than half of its current 25,000-square-foot space and add 70,000 new square feet, pulling its bed count up from 37 to 51.
Still, Fort Washington Medical Center had originally aimed even higher. It had first applied to stretch to 70 beds in a
$67 million expansion, but state regulators only approved 51 new beds, saying that was sufficient with other existing facilities.
The hospital, which ends up transferring about 700 patients a year to other county facilities because of over-capacity, holds off on predicting what the lower bed count will mean for them.
"We'll be able to keep more patients here in the community," says Michelle LeSane, a spokeswoman for Nexus Health, owner of Fort Washington Medical Center, which opened 24 years ago as an ambulatory care center and received its first inpatient bed 16 years ago. "But clearly that means we have to continue to plan for the future for the residents of our community."
Outside of medical and surgical beds, two other portions of the hospital are getting the most attention. One is its 2,800-square-foot emergency department, which will swell to almost 18,000 square feet in the first floor of a new three-story addition. The other is its 6,000-square-foot surgery department, which will get a makeover and extend to more than 17,000 square feet with larger operating rooms in a new one-story addition.
The expansion also doubles the Fort Washington hospital's imaging and dietary areas and triples its lab and pharmacy spaces. It adds new space for respiratory and physical therapy and administrative offices.
Both hospitals are paying a bulk of the expansion bills with bond proceeds. But those may not be the only county hospitals cutting construction-related checks in the near future. Southern Maryland Hospital Center is awaiting state approval for a
$43.5 million plan to renovate its existing space and build a third and fourth floor atop its bed tower for gynecology, obstetrics, nursery and ante-natal areas.
It's a welcome switch for county leaders, whose attention -- and about $50 million in county funds in the last five years -- has been swallowed by the still-financially parched Dimensions Healthcare. The county is now desperately trying to rally more funds to attract a new owner for the debt-laden system.
"It will certainly be an expensive proposition," says John Erzen, a spokesman for County Executive Jack Johnson. "The state has to do more than what it's done. The county has shouldered a tremendous financial burden."
E-maiL: Vsinha@bizjournals.coM Phone: 703/258-0838
Washington Business Journal - January 26, 2007by Vandana SinhaStaff Reporter
Two hospitals in Prince George's County, where a money-losing health care system has dominated recent headlines, are quietly dishing out a combined $112 million toward their biggest expansions to date.
While county leaders try to decide the future of Dimensions Healthcare System, owner of Prince George's Hospital Center and Laurel Regional Hospital, other hospital leaders are putting final touches on plans to enlarge Fort Washington Medical Center and Doctors Community Hospital.
Both hospitals plan to start construction by the end of this year and finish by the end of 2009.
The Fort Washington and Lanham hospitals, spending $58 million and $54 million respectively, are hoping to catch up with the county's growing population. The county, which has seen a 17 percent population rise between 1990 and 2005, also has absorbed patients from D.C. after D.C. General closed down five years ago. [yet another reason for retrocession]
Doctors Community Hospital is building a six-story addition on its east side, dedicating much of its new 8,150 square feet to private rooms for its 186 patient beds.
"It's a pure patient bed project," says Philip Down, president for the 36-year-old nonprofit hospital. "Most health care delivery now is going to family-centered health care. Small semi-private rooms are not conducive to that."
Doctors Community Hospital says shifting from shared to single rooms also helps free up beds previously off limits because they sat inches away from an infectious patient or someone of the opposite sex. "On any given day, 20 or 30 beds would be closed," Down says.
The hospital is keeping oxygen lines intact for additional beds in 61 of the rooms, allowing its physical capacity to total 251 beds. The patient tower will also house new spaces for dialysis, physical therapy, a gift shop and an MRI that formerly called a nearby trailer home.
The hospital plans to leave 26,500 square feet in its first two floors unfinished for administrative offices and diagnostic rooms. Nearly a quarter of that space will be reserved for a future expansion of the hospital's emergency department whenever it can summon up the financing.
Officials with Doctors Community Hospital, which is working with Goodman Associates on the design and Gilbane Building on the construction, say the expansion won't result in more than a slight uptick in its 1,300-person staff.
Fort Washington Medical Center, on the other hand, says it will be adding significant numbers to its 250-person staff after an expansion that will quadruple its space and hike its bed count by nearly 40 percent.
The hospital's dramatic buildout will renovate more than half of its current 25,000-square-foot space and add 70,000 new square feet, pulling its bed count up from 37 to 51.
Still, Fort Washington Medical Center had originally aimed even higher. It had first applied to stretch to 70 beds in a
$67 million expansion, but state regulators only approved 51 new beds, saying that was sufficient with other existing facilities.
The hospital, which ends up transferring about 700 patients a year to other county facilities because of over-capacity, holds off on predicting what the lower bed count will mean for them.
"We'll be able to keep more patients here in the community," says Michelle LeSane, a spokeswoman for Nexus Health, owner of Fort Washington Medical Center, which opened 24 years ago as an ambulatory care center and received its first inpatient bed 16 years ago. "But clearly that means we have to continue to plan for the future for the residents of our community."
Outside of medical and surgical beds, two other portions of the hospital are getting the most attention. One is its 2,800-square-foot emergency department, which will swell to almost 18,000 square feet in the first floor of a new three-story addition. The other is its 6,000-square-foot surgery department, which will get a makeover and extend to more than 17,000 square feet with larger operating rooms in a new one-story addition.
The expansion also doubles the Fort Washington hospital's imaging and dietary areas and triples its lab and pharmacy spaces. It adds new space for respiratory and physical therapy and administrative offices.
Both hospitals are paying a bulk of the expansion bills with bond proceeds. But those may not be the only county hospitals cutting construction-related checks in the near future. Southern Maryland Hospital Center is awaiting state approval for a
$43.5 million plan to renovate its existing space and build a third and fourth floor atop its bed tower for gynecology, obstetrics, nursery and ante-natal areas.
It's a welcome switch for county leaders, whose attention -- and about $50 million in county funds in the last five years -- has been swallowed by the still-financially parched Dimensions Healthcare. The county is now desperately trying to rally more funds to attract a new owner for the debt-laden system.
"It will certainly be an expensive proposition," says John Erzen, a spokesman for County Executive Jack Johnson. "The state has to do more than what it's done. The county has shouldered a tremendous financial burden."
E-maiL: Vsinha@bizjournals.coM Phone: 703/258-0838