Fletcher Allen Health Care filed a Certificate of Need (CON) application today with the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) seeking the Board’s approval to build a 128-bed inpatient building to replace the most outdated inpatient facilities on the Medical Center Campus. The submission of this CON is part two of a three-part process, where part one was preliminary planning under the Conceptual CON issued August 2013 and part three will be the submission of final project costs in November 2014 after construction costs associated with the final design documents have been verified.
· Building would contain 128 single-bed inpatient rooms
· Estimated cost of $187.7M to be confirmed in November
· Occupancy anticipated in September 2018
Artist renderings of the proposed inpatient building: top, from the southwest; bottom, from the northwest; and, left, from above (the curved building on the left.) Courtesy FAHC
The new facilities will seek LEED certification and be consistent with contemporary hospital standards and the demands of health care reform, which call for high-quality, closely coordinated, cost-effective care.
The preliminary cost estimate is $175 million. Additionally, the interest paid during the construction period on bonds needed to finance the project will amount to an estimated $12.7 million and must be included with the project cost, making the total amount requiring approval $187.7 million.
“I’m confident that this new facility will help us provide a better healing environment, preserve our medical center campus for its highest and best use – caring for the sickest and most complex patients in our region – and ensure appropriate regional bed capacity for our four-hospital network, said John Brumsted, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Fletcher Allen Health Care and Fletcher Allen Partners.
“Arriving at this point has required a great deal of thoughtful deliberation from trustees, leaders, physicians, nurses and staff representing departments across the organization; design, planning and construction teams; and patients and families who participated in design groups and interviews. We’ve also received valuable input from and collaborated with other key stakeholders, such as the University of Vermont, the City of Burlington, and our Ward One neighbors,” Brumsted continued. “Each stakeholder had a common goal: creating a patient and family-centered facility that will match the high quality of health care that our doctors, nurses and staff deliver each and every day, while enhancing efficiency and proving cost effective over time. I believe this proposal will help us achieve that goal.”
The Project’s specific objectives are to:
Improve quality
- Begin replacement of aging inpatient facilities with a new inpatient building that is highly patient-centered, improves the quality of patient care,
- Increase the number of private patient rooms to promote healing and accommodate patient families, consistent with contemporary design standards.
- Only 81 of Fletcher Allen’s existing 237 medical/surgical beds (30%) are located in private (single-occupancy) rooms. Current hospital design standards require private rooms for new hospital construction.
- The Project will address this deficiency by replacing 128 of Fletcher Allen’s existing beds with single occupancy rooms.
- As a result of the Project, approximately 85-90% of Fletcher Allen’s medical/surgical beds will be in single-occupancy rooms and Fletcher Allen’s most outdated inpatient rooms in Shepardson North will be replaced.
Ensure appropriate regional bed capacity
- Meet community needs for inpatient care with an appropriate number of beds, based upon:
- An assessment of existing regional inpatient bed capacity, including existing inpatient facilities of Fletcher Allen and its affiliated hospitals in Fletcher Allen Partners;
- Careful consideration of health reform goals and ongoing initiatives of Fletcher Allen Partners to reduce inpatient bed utilization through collaborative regional planning efforts
Accomplish these objectives within available financial resources
- Assure that the Project is
- Financially feasible;
- Within the debt capacity of Fletcher Allen Partners, while maintaining strong “A” credit rating.
- Minimize the financial impact on patients by
- Assuring that hospital rates and charges resulting from the Project will not adversely affect patients and their payers.
- Adding incremental annual operating expenses of approximately $16.1 million upon occupancy in FY 2019 or approximately 1.5% of Fletcher Allen’s projected overall operating annual operating budget.
- Having Fletcher Allen Partners continue to undertake aggressive system-wide efforts to reduce operating costs and offset Project-related incremental costs
Project Plan and Scope
With these objectives, the Fletcher Allen proposes construction of a seven-story inpatient building with approximately 180,000 sq. ft. on the west side of Fletcher Allen’s Main Campus above the existing Emergency Department parking lot with four floors of 32 single-occupancy, medical-surgical rooms for a total of 128 inpatient rooms. Two of the remaining floors would be mechanical space. The first floor would house a new entrance and parking for the Emergency Department.
The Project would not involve any increase in the number of Fletcher Allen’s inpatient beds. The approximate number of existing staffed beds (447) would initially be maintained. Flexibility would also be preserved to reduce beds in the future as health reform initiatives succeed in reducing inpatient utilization. The Project also does not involve the introduction of any new services.
Timetable
It will take approximately 38 months for design and construction after the Certificate of Need is issued. Assuming prior issuance of a Certificate of Need and all other necessary permits, construction would begin in May 2015 and the new building would be occupied in September, 2018.
About Fletcher Allen Health Care
Fletcher Allen Health Care, together with our partners at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, is Vermont’s academic medical center. Fletcher Allen, along with Central Vermont Medical Center, CVPH Medical Center and Elizabethtown Community Hospital, are members of Fletcher Allen Partners, established to develop a more coordinated system of care throughout the region. As a regional referral center, Fletcher Allen provides advanced care to approximately one million people in Vermont and northern New York. For more information about Fletcher Allen, find us online at http://www.fletcherallen.org or on our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog sites at www.fletcherallen.org/socialmedia.