UPMC unveils plans to build hospital in Jefferson Hills

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

UPMC on Thursday took the wraps off its newest hospital in the Pittsburgh area — a 63-bed facility the health care giant wants to build in Jefferson Hills.

The three-story, 200,000square-foot hospital, which would be among the system’s smallest, would be built on 70 acres off Elliott Road at Route 51. Construction is set to begin in spring 2019, with an anticipated completion date of late 2021.

UPMC officials held an open house at the borough building in Jefferson Hills to introduce plans for the hospital, with site plan drawings displayed on easels. No zoning change or variance is needed before construction begins, UPMC officials said, but the plans must still undergo routine municipal and state review.

The hospital is to have an emergency room and helipad to accommodate an estimated five to six flights per month, but no intensive care beds or resources for seriously hurt or ill patients. The cost of the facility is $190 million. A 30,000-square-foot for-profit physicians office complex and special procedure unit would be within the hospital. The rest of the structurewould be tax-exempt.

UPMC Health Plan has 55,000 members living in the 12 ZIP codes around the hospital site who would be served by the new hospital, said Mark Sevco, president of UPMC Monroeville and McKeesport hospitals.

Some neighbors have posted yard signs opposing the project in the vicinity of the hospital site, and opponents, including Mark DiAngelo, a 53-year-old transportation planner who lives near the proposed hospital, say UPMC should consider other sites.

But Pete Taucher, 66, a retired contractor, said he supports UPMC because he believes the hospital would be an asset to a community he says is growing.