HealthAlliance says it’ll finish expansion in ‘21
HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley says its expansion of the Mary’s Avenue hospital campus will be completed in 2021.
Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley says it is working closely with officials in an effort toward filing paperwork for a building permit to start its expansion of the Mary’s Avenue hospital campus.
In a statement, the company gave no estimated time when it would request a building permit, but vowed to complete the project in 2021.
The expansion received approval by the state Health Department in June. A scaled-back version of the original plan was announced in November 2018, and granted Planning Board approval in December 2018.
The Mary’s Avenue expansion plan was first mulled by then-hospital officials in 2013.
HealthAlliance is a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network.
“Since we received New York State approval for the Mary’s Avenue transformation project in June, we have cleared several additional milestones as we move closer to groundbreaking and construction,” HealthAlliance said in a statement. “WMCHealth and HealthAlliance are working closely with the City of Kingston in advance of permit filing.”
“We’ve selected architecture, construction and project management firms, and packages for the various phases of the construction (i.e., steel, concrete, etc.) will be bid shortly,” the statement said. “Once the bidding and selection processes are complete, we will file for permits with the city.”
The statement does not estimate when a building permit application will be submitted.
“These are all steps in process for a project of this scale, which is still on target for completion in the latter half of 2021,” the statement reads.
Hospital officials say an email address has been set up for public questions on the matter. It is build@ hahv.org.
The state health department action — formally the granting of a “certificate of need” for the project — was the final administrative step needed for work to begin, except for acquiring the building permit.
The addition, about 28 percent smaller than originally planned, is to comprise 175 patient beds, mostly in private rooms; a new 25,000-square-foot 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. 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 multi-discpline “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.