Sunday, September 30, 2012

Montefiore Plans New 12-Story Bronx Facility

A new ambulatory surgery center will fill the 12-story, 278,000-square-foot building slated to rise at Simone Development's growing Hutchinson Metro Center campus, in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. Montefiore is planning to spend $142.3 million on what will be its first freestanding ambulatory surgery center. 

The hospital is seeking state permission to build the facility at 1250 Waters Place in the Bronx, the second new tower of the growing Hutchinson Metro Center campus, as reported in ElectricWeb | Blogger (Sept 19, 2012).

Montefiore has an agreement to lease a 12-story, 278,000-square-foot building to be constructed at the site along the Hutchinson River Parkway. Simone Development is the owner of Hutchinson Metro Center.

Total project costs will be funded with a $35 million lease from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York; $14.3 million in cash; and a $93 million construction loan from M&T Bank.

The project won approval on September 19 from the Establishment and Project Review Committee of the Public Health and Health Planning Council. The plan calls for relocating some of Montefiore's ambulatory surgery cases from operating rooms at its hospitals to what it calls a "more efficient and patient-friendly environment."

The patient experience is a key factor driving the project. Improving access to care and patient satisfaction would "retain patients in the system, critical to an accountable care organization," Montefiore noted in its certificate of need application.

The proposed center will have 12 operating rooms; four procedure rooms; space for pre-op testing, laboratory services, pharmacy, outpatient surgical specialty clinical programs, and primary care services; and an outpatient imaging center.

Montefiore is making the investment to meet rising demand for ambulatory surgery services. Volume at its three campuses rose by 6.5% between 2008 and 2012, while during that period, inpatient surgical discharges rose only 1.5%.

The hospital projects that by the third year, the site will generate $11.7 million in profit.

Hospital expansions create jobs. Montefiore estimates the center will result in an additional 260 employees in the first year and 538 by the third.