PRIORITIZING PATIENTS
Beth Israel pitches 158-bed addition
Aging facilities and the increasingly acute, complex needs of its patients are behind Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s proposed 10-story inpatient facility that would offer up to 158 single-bed private rooms, advanced operating and procedure rooms, and new clinical service and support spaces, the hospital said in a new city filing yesterday.
The nonprofit Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate wants to construct the roughly 345,000-square-foot facility next to the Rosenberg Building on its west campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical and Academic Area. It would be its first major new patient care building in more than 20 years.
Only 34 percent of BIDMC’s medical/surgical beds are in single-bed rooms, which is well below other Boston academic medical centers, and BIDMC’s inpatient beds operate at or above 85 percent occupancy more than 88 percent of the time, the hospital said in project forms filed with the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
“Patients and families continue to request single rooms, and the seriously ill and often vulnerable patients and families BIDMC cares for have greater need for the quiet and respite of a single-bed room than patients with fewer significant medical needs and other challenges,” the filing states. “Single-bedded patient rooms help reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infection, improve patient sleep and reduce stress for patients and their families.”
The hospital, which is licensed for 673 beds, has 493 medical/surgical beds, 77 intensive care beds and 62 OBGYN beds.
BIDMC’s existing operating rooms, diagnostic and procedural spaces, and healing and waiting areas are also aged and undersized compared to current industry norms and regulatory requirements for new facilities, according to the hospital. The average age of its facilities is 60 years.
As part of the project, the hospital wants to move its rooftop medical helicopter landing pad to the new facility because it would be slightly taller than the adjacent Rosenberg Building where it is now located. The buildings would be connected in multiple places.
BIDMC also has plans for a rooftop green space and “healing garden” for patients, their families and caregivers.
Renderings for the project were not available yesterday, according to BIDMC spokeswoman Jennifer Kritz, who said the hospital was still finalizing the design as well as the cost estimate.
“The project will be funded largely through philanthropy and bond financing,” she said.
The new inpatient facility is being proposed as a replacement for a previously planned addition to the Rosenberg Building.