WMC sees new $221M building as enhancing patient experience

Westchester Medical Center (WMCHealth) in Valhalla plans to construct a new $221 million patient care building on its campus that will enable it to make all of its hospital rooms available for use by just one patient at a time instead of some being semi-private. In addition, all rooms in the new building would be equipped to enable more intensive patient care.

Josh Ratner, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for the medical center told the Business Journal, “This is by our calculus the only project of its kind in the state of New York where we’re building patient rooms that are capable by code of being both a general medical surgical room as well as an intensive care room. That is extraordinarily important when you think about surge capacity, pandemic readiness.”

Ratner recalled that when Covid-19 burst upon the scene hospitals were forced to stop ambulatory surgeries and there was an influx of patients. He said that the new building will help WMC respond to a future surge in patient admissions in a very effective way.

Ratner said that about 70% of the medical center’s inpatient rooms are semi-private, which means they need to be shared.

“As you can imagine, that’s uncomfortable for patients to share a room when you’re not feeling good,” Ratner said. “There are all sorts of infection control issues, efficiency issues. So, this building allows us to be 100% all-private when we’re completed, meaning all of our patient rooms will be private. It will have the ability to surge in case of a future pandemic. We’ll have improved infection control capabilities because private means there’s no spread between patients. Most important, the patient experience will be so much better.”

The new five-story building would have four floors with 32 beds each and ground floor conference center space. Services to be provided include trauma care, neurosciences, cardiology and general surgery. The 128 new rooms will absorb the second patient beds now found in semi-private rooms throughout the medical center.

“We’re not actually increasing the number of beds that we have today that we’re licensed for,” Ratner said. The medical center now has 652 beds on its campus. When the new building’s 128 beds are ready and the existing semi-private rooms have been converted to private rooms, the total bed count on the WMC campus still will be 652.

Ratner said that a lot of hospitals are moving in the direction of having only single-patient private rooms but some are challenged by restrictions of their physical plant and capital costs. He said that data on the number of hospitals with all-private rooms is not readily available.

“I will tell you as somebody within the industry: most hospitals are looking to move in that direction,” Ratner said. “Can you imagine, you go into a hotel and check in and you realize that in the bedroom with two queen beds you’re going to be sharing a room with a stranger? Now imagine that — except now you’re critically ill. At the end of the day, what a private room allows for is a more holistic healing environment with privacy and really it helps improve the overall ability to get well, to heal. When you’re in a hospital, you’re at the most vulnerable times of your life.”

The proposed new building would provide 162,626 square feet of space. The project is expected to create an estimated 250 on-site construction jobs and 127 new full-time jobs once completed. Construction is expected to take 24 months. Turner Construction is expected to be the general contractor.

Ratner said that WMC applied to New York state for a Certificate of Need, which has been issued and allows the project to move forward.

Michael D. Israel, president and CEO of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), said, “The Patient Care Tower on the Westchester Medical Center campus will be the Hudson Valley”™s hub of critical care medicine as it will bring together critical care and medical-surgical specialties in one location, enabling Westchester Medical Center to convert to all private inpatient rooms across the rest of the campus.”

Westchester County”™s Local Development Corporation (LDC) has given final approval to floating $195 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finance the project. The LDC”™s resolution approving floating the bonds allows the total amount to go higher to a maximum of $225 million if necessary.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said that the bond financing will be done at no cost or risk to Westchester”™s taxpayers. About $25 million of the project”™s cost is expected to come from philanthropic sources.

“This magnificent new project will further enhance our county”™s world-class health care sector while providing a boost to our region”™s economy,” Latimer said.

LDC Chair Joan McDonald estimated that the county will receive more than $3.5 million in total economic benefits as a result of the project over 30 years. The total benefits are given as being comprised of $722,468 in sales tax revenue from construction, $2,528,062 of sales tax revenue from operations over 30 years, and $281,250 in fees to be collected by the LDC based on the bond proceeds.

“We get 12,000 (patient) transfers a year from other hospitals,” Ratner said. “We care for the sickest, most complex patients in the region. Our ability to have capacity is really important. Our beds are almost always close to full.”