Today, Fletcher Allen Health Care filed the final project costs for our inpatient bed replacement project with the Green Mountain Care Board. This was the final part of a three-part submission in the Certificate of Need (CON) application process. Part one was preliminary planning under the Conceptual CON issued in August 2013, and part two was the submission of our building proposal at the end of September 2014. This portion of the CON application includes the total project cost of $187.3 million, associated financial tables and construction plans. Fletcher Allen anticipates the building will be ready for occupancy in just under four years.
· Total project will cost $187.3M
· Building would contain 128 single-bed inpatient rooms
· Occupancy anticipated in September 2018
After finalizing construction costs with our construction manager and validating those costs with an independent cost estimator, the project costs are $174.9 million – very close to the estimated $175 million filed in part two of the CON application. Additionally, the interest paid during the construction period on bonds needed to finance the project will amount to an estimated $12.4 million and must be included with the project cost, making the total amount requiring approval $187.3 million (this is $400,000 less than the estimate presented in September).
New inpatient wing, Northwest View artist rendering. Above is the Southwest view. Courtesy FAHC
The projects consists of a seven-story inpatient building with approximately 180,000 sq. ft. on the west side of Fletcher Allen’s Medical Center 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 will be mechanical space. The first floor will house a new entrance and parking for the Emergency Department.
There will not be any increase in the number of Fletcher Allen’s inpatient beds. The approximate number of existing staffed beds (447) will initially be maintained. Flexibility would also be preserved to reduce beds in the future as health care 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 is targeted to 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.
Source: Fletcher Allen 11.7.2014