HealthAlliance yet to request building permit for expansion
HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley has yet to apply for a building permit for the planned $93 million expansion of its Mary’s Avenue hospital campus despite getting state approval for the project two months ago.
Summer Smith, director for communications and community engagement for the city of Kingston, said Wednesday that no paperwork has been filed for the expected construction of a twostory, 79,000-square-foot addition to the hospital.
The Kingston Planning Board approved the project last December, and the state Department of Health gave its OK in June.
The state action — formally the granting of a “certificate of need” for the project — was the final administrative step needed for work to begin expect for acquiring a building permit.
HealthAlliance, which is part of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, has yet to an
nounce a construction start date.
The addition, about 28 percent smaller than originally planned, is to comprise 175 patient beds, mostly in private rooms; a new 25,000-squarefoot emergency department, which will include cardiac observation and behavioral health services; and a 10-bed intensive care unit, along with a six-bed medical “stepdown” unit that will provide an intermediate level of care between the ICU and the new building’s medical-surgical wards.
Also planned, according to HealthAlliance, are a new birthing center with “ultramodern labor, delivery and postpartum rooms”; a new imaging department; and remodeled centers for ambulatory surgery, infusion therapy and endoscopy.
There also are to be renovations to 48,000 square feet in the existing Mary’s Avenue building.
HealthAlliance currently comprises two hospitals in Midtown Kingston, just half a mile from each other: the Mary’s Avenue Campus (formerly Benedictine Hospital) and the Broadway Campus (formerly Kingston Hospital). The two facilities affiliated under the HealthAlliance banner about a decade ago, and changes at the time included closing the Mary’s Avenue emergency room and expanding the one at the Broadway building; and consolidating all maternity services into the Broadway Campus.
Now, HealthAlliance plans to convert the Broadway Campus into a multidiscpline “health village” after all patient-care services are consolidated into the Mary’s Avenue complex.
The combined Mary’s Avenue and Broadway projects, known as the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative, are expected to cost $134.9 million, with $88.8 million being covered by the state. The balance will from come from Westchester Medical Center Health Network, HealthAlliance and a capital fundraising campaign.