The relentless pace of change has taken on new meaning for Peter Cordeau.
Named president of Norwalk Hospital in January 2019 — when what was then the Western Connecticut Health Network was in the midst of its $2.4 billion merger with Health Quest, which resulted in the formation of Nuvance Health ”“ Cordeau has since been charged not only with piloting Norwalk through Covid-19, but also overseeing a multiyear plan to modernize its campus through a combination of renovations and new construction ”” the largest expansion in its 128-year history.
Cordeau told the Business Journal that the original estimate of $224 million for the work remains in place, and that it is “just north of $60 million” in its goal of receiving $100 million from philanthropists. Reaching that milestone will obviate the need to borrow funds, he added.
“We meet with the architects pretty much every Tuesday,” he said, “and that includes the end-users ”“ the physicians, nurses, staff, ICU. That way we can finetune what we want it to look like. We”™re vetting out everything from a needs perspective.”
Staff members have also toured another Nuvance facility, the Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, which in January unveiled a new $600 million pavilion ”“ reportedly that city”™s largest-ever construction project.
“Our doctors and nurses walked through the emergency department and the new in-patient floors and were asked, ”˜What do you love? What don”™t you like?”™” Cordeau said. “It can be tough to really see how people will actually be using something on paper.”
Norwalk”™s renovations will include the construction of a seven-story, 180,000-square-foot pavilion on the southeast corner of the campus replacing the Community Pavilion, which was built in 1953. and the Tracey Pavilion, erected in 1918.
Three floors will be designed for patients requiring hospitalizations for illness and injury, as well as for those having surgery. The Medical/Surgical Unit will feature 90 private patient rooms with designated space for medical equipment and for visiting loved ones.
The hospital will also have a New Mother and Baby Unit featuring 17 private rooms, a six-bassinet Well Baby Nursery and a neonatal (NICU) intensive care unit for premature and critically ill babies. The NICU will feature six high-touch, high-tech infant rooms.
Labor and Delivery will move to the Main Pavilion and feature comfortable birthing rooms and advanced medical equipment; after delivery and recovery, mother and baby will move to the new pavilion for the remainder of their stay.
Also, the Intensive Care Unit and Progressive Care Unit (PCU) will remain in the main pavilion and will be fully renovated and modernized to feature larger rooms with ample private space for seating for loved ones and for specialized medical equipment.
But that, as it turns out, isn”™t all. Cordeau said the hospital has signed a master lease for 108,000 square feet at nearby 761 Main Ave., which by early spring will be where Norwalk maintains “a significant focus” on women”™s health, via OB/GYN, mammography, biopsy and other services. Soundview Medical, whose specialties include endocrinology, gastroenterology and pulmonary, will remain at that address.
Cordeau said he had also recently signed a master lease for about 71,000 square feet at 40 Cross St., which will serve as another multispecialty office. Already home to the Norwalk Medical Group, the idea is for the hospital to gradually take over more space as current leases expire.
The move also helps to “make sure our practices are more accessible to public transportation lines,” he added.
Indeed, the overall philosophy at play is to follow the trend toward more treatments ”“ with some obvious exceptions– taking place outside of the hospital”™s walls. “Our inpatient census has naturally been decreasing over time,” Cordeau said, “as technology and hopefully wellness improve.
“We want to create spaces that are more flexible, which is something that Covid really taught us,” he continued. “At one point we had to create satellite space (for Covid patients) out of our GI units here.”
The renovations and new constructions are expected to be done by the winter of 2025-26.
As for Covid itself, Cordeau ”“ like a lot of people ”“ is cautiously optimistic that the worst may finally be behind us. “We”™re down to admitting between one and four Covid patients a day, most of whom are mostly unvaccinated people and/or have other health problems,” he said.
“Right now I”™m more concerned about people getting their flu vaccinations,” Cordeau continued. “Last year there really was no flu because everyone was staying indoors because of Covid.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 2,038 flu cases from Sept. 27, 2020 to April 24, 2021 ”“ compared with about 38 million during the 2019-20 flu season.
Cordeau said he suspects that annual Covid shots, along with yearly flu vaccinations, will become the norm moving forward.
As for Nuvance dismissing staffers who did not comply by Oct. 1 with either getting the vaccine or submitting to weekly Covid tests ”“ the system said less than 2% of its employees were let go ”“ Cordeau said that Norwalk was “minimally impacted. Like everyone else, we were very, very worried, but we were fortunate.”
Booster shots for employees will be deployed as supplies become available. Nuvance does not require staffers to get a flu shot.
Budgeting remains a challenge for every health care facility, with its 2020, and at least part of their 2021, expectations tossed aside by the pandemic. Cordeau said that for Norwalk”™s fiscal year 2022, which began on Oct. 1, he”™s looking at numbers from the past two fiscal years to try to come up with the right formula.
“Some things will never come back, or have changed,” he said, referring to the increased use of telehealth and the trend toward more outpatient procedures. “But maternity numbers don”™t change, and surgical and ICU on average remain pretty consistent.”
Yet another change on the horizon is an increase in outpatient behavioral health offerings, including intensive outpatient program (IOP) initiatives for adolescents, which Cordeau said should be available in the next 18 to 24 months.
“It”™s an area that needs improvement,” he declared. “A lot of insurance companies will only pay for a couple of visits, or you”™re in a situation where it”™s cash only. We want to do better than that.”
The hospital is also hoping to build up its psychiatric residency program, and is “actively looking” for approximately 12,000 square feet of space.
“We want to train and retain the next generation of psychiatrists,” he said.
Reflecting on all the changes going on at his facility, Cordeau admitted: “It can be nerve-wracking — but it’s exciting too.”
