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Hospital Takes First Steps Toward Building New Medical-Services Building

Posted on: Sunday, 17 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jul. 16--In March, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center disclosed tentative plans to build a new medical-services building. The hospital took its first plans for that building to the state yesterday.

The hospital said it has filed an application with the state to begin a multi-million-dollar planning project for the new building, but released few details of the plan.

The hospital filed the application, called a predevelopment activities certificate of need, with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, according to Danica Patterson, the hospital's manager of government and regulatory affairs.

The state requires medical centers that spend more than $2 million to plan any construction project first receive predevelopment approval before entering the planning stage. Patterson estimated that the hospital will spend about $4.7 million to plan the new building.

"Because of the scope of the project, it's critical that we plan it out to know exactly what it is we need to do to go forward," Patterson said. "What we're doing is looking at our own patient projections and responding to what those needs will be in the future."

Specific plans for the project are not yet in place, Patterson said. The building's construction could start in the fall of 2006. It would replace the hospital's existing emergency department and intensive care unit, but Patterson could not say how much the project would cost.

She estimated the building could be between four to seven stories.

Planning for the tower could take months, she said. Hospital officials hope to apply to the state in March to begin the construction phase.

The state department requires acute-care hospitals and other medical centers to get an approval, called a certificate of need, before buying new medical equipment, adding new services or beginning construction projects. The requirement is designed to keep health-care costs down and limit duplication of services.

Patterson estimated that the state could decide on the hospital's most recent application by the end of August. She said it would take the state about five months to decide whether to approve the construction application once it's submitted.

The application to begin the planning stage comes as the medical center finds itself increasingly tight on space, she said.

The hospital's emergency room was initially designed to treat about 55,000 patients annually, but is projected to treat about 75,000 patients this year, she said.

"As the emergency room count continues to grow, we're going to need more room," Patterson said.

Other hospitals are undergoing similar expansion plans. Forsyth Medical Center broke ground in May on its $132 million North Tower Pavilion, which includes a four-story women's health center and a five-story addition to that center. That building is expected to open in about two years.

Patterson said that the Wake Forest tower was not aimed at competing with Forsyth Medical Center's tower.

Generally, more hospitals are finding it necessary to expand their operations to keep up with an aging population, said Steve Graybill, a health-care consultant with Mercer Human Resource Consulting in Charlotte.

"I think there is definitely an increased need in the population, as far as certain services," Graybill said.

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Source: Winston-Salem Journal

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