BINGHAMTON — After three years and $70 million, Lourdes Hospital completed its Mission 2012 project and celebrated with an open house at the new facility May 12.
Lourdes broke ground in March 2009 on the project, which included expanding and modernizing the emergency department, adding two new surgical suites, expanding and redesigning the radiology department, and building a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-approved and funded flood wall.
Along the way, Lourdes got a first-hand test of just how well that new flood wall worked during the flooding last September, and soldiered through bad weather, including an April Fool’s Day snowstorm.
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“The flood protection worked in 2011 and spared the hospital any major damage,” Lourdes President and CEO David Patak says. And while the weather was harsh at times, the project stayed on schedule and Lourdes’ new two-story atrium and entrance connecting the new ambulatory-care building to the existing hospital opened to the public last October.
Work has continued since then to complete the new 50,000-square-foot ambulatory-care building, which houses the hospital’s gastroenterology suite, a registration area, an outpatient blood-draw lab, a pre-admission testing area, and the hospital’s rehabilitation department along with Lourdes Riverside Surgical, the hospital’s surgeon network. The new outpatient-care facility now features a new open MRI machine and new surgical suites. The project also included expanded emergency and radiology departments.
Lourdes undertook the project to improve the care it provides for outpatient services, which make up about 75 percent of the total services provided, Patak says. Previously, those services were scattered about the campus and located in outdated areas, he adds.
“It was time that we invested in that ambulatory side of the campus,” he says. Hospital officials made the decision to combine all the ambulatory, or outpatient, services into a new facility on the west side of the Lourdes campus, adjacent to the hospital’s inpatient service area, and Mission 2012: Building Tomorrow’s Healthcare Today was born.
3Reaction from the staff and public has been equally positive, he notes. At least 300 people turned out May 12 for the open house, where they were able to take tours around the new facility. Along with noting the improved access to the facility, visitors have commented that the outpatient area is peaceful and doesn’t have that “clinical” feel, while still offering high-tech equipment and care, Patak says.
The $70 million project included about $10 million worth of new equipment. Lourdes funded the project through a $6 million capital campaign, an $8.7 million HEAL NY2 grant, and $48.4 million from the hospital’s operating budget. Lourdes reported 2010 revenue of $275.2 million and expenses of $256.6 million on its Form 990 on file at www.guidestar.org.
Lourdes hopes to construct a two-story parking garage next, and has several other projects in the works as well.
“A health-care facility of this size and scope is never done,” Patak says.
On the main campus, Lourdes officials are meeting with architects to see how to best utilize the space vacated by the services that moved to the new outpatient building. Lourdes is also working on consolidating two flood-ravaged primary-care facilities into one new facility it hopes to open in the next 8 to 12 months. Lourdes’ Johnson City and south Binghamton primary-care facilities were too damaged to reopen following the September flooding, Patak says. While those sites are currently operating from temporary locations, Lourdes officials are working with a developer to renovate a building to house those primary-care practices as well as diagnostic imaging, women’s health services, a lab, and a walk-in clinic.
Located at 169 Riverside Drive, Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital Inc. (www.lourdes.com) includes the main campus, a primary-care network, a mobile mammography van, a mobile primary-care van, Lourdes at Home, Lourdes Hospice, Lourdes Health Support, Lourdes Vestal Medical Services, Lourdes Sleep Disorders Lab, Lourdes Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Program, Lourdes Rehabilitation Services, Lourdes Corporate Health Services, and Youth Services & Lourdes Center for Oral Health. Lourdes employs 2,404 people and has 197 licensed beds. The hospital saw 1,171 births, 2,970 inpatient surgical visits, 16,866 outpatient surgical visits, and 42,283 emergency room visits in 2011.
Lourdes is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic nonprofit health network.
