Forward Thinking Wing Breaks Ground on $23 Million Expansion Project

Dr. Charles Cavagnaro calls Wing Memorial Hospital’s $23 million, 58,000-square-foot expansion initiative a “next-generation project.”

By that, he means that the new facilities included in the addition will enable the small, currently 41-bed, community hospital to properly meet the needs of the next generation of residents in the Quaboag region.

“That’s important for a community hospital,” he told The Healthcare News. “A lot of them are going away; it’s nice to have the community support and trust to be able to be in a postion where we’re actually growing.”

Ground-breaking ceremonies were staged June 5 for the project, which has been in the planning stages for several years. Cavagnaro added that the specific aspects of the plan — ranging from new patient and operating rooms to a more spacious registration area and expanded gift shop – will be welcome upgrades for facilities built roughly a half century ago.

A facilities master plan has emerged over the past few years, said Cavagnaro, noting that it has been shaped by a study of trends and future projections for both inpatient and outpatient care.

The addition, designed by the Boston-based architecture firm Payette Associates, which specializes in health care facilities, will include three new state-of-the-art operating suites, 18 private patient rooms and 11 larger semi-private rooms, six intensive care unit rooms, a new endoscopy suite, a minor-procedure room, a larger registration, information, and admissions area, and an expanded gift shop.

The sum of the new parts will give Wing the resources and amenities it needs to effectively compete — and survive — in an increasingly challenging health care environment, one that is especially daunting for small community hospitals.

“Like all community hospitals, we’re an endangered species,” he explained. “We operate on very thin margins; what this addition does is put us in a position to grow, and in this current environment, if you’re not growing — if you’re not meeting the needs of your community — then you’re dying.”

Building Blocks

Cavagnaro referred to the addition as a “replacement wing,” meaning that the new facilities will essentially replace, not augment, existing ones — although there will be a small net gain (eight) in the total number of patient beds.

The hospital, affiliated with UMass Memorial Health Care, has known for some time that upgrades were necessary, he continued, adding quickly that the primary questions to be answered were when and how to proceed. Specifically, the hospital had to decide whether to renovate or replace (build new) and simple economics revealed that the latter was the best course.

“The cost of replacement is actually lower than the cost of renovating — the old buildings don’t have the floor-to-floor heights that you need for modern health care construction,” he told The Healthcare News. “Also, there’s the interruption to business that happens when you try to renovate; for a small community hospital that lives on extremely narrow margins, you can’t disrupt business that much.”

Meanwhile, a needs assessment and a facilities master plan based on that assessment eventually revealed the general shape that the addition would take.

The needs analysis revealed that strong, steady growth in inpatient care — the hospital is currently at volume levels projected for the year 2010 — and a smaller degree of growth in surgical care.

Thus, plans for four new surgical suites were altered to include only three new rooms, to match the current number at the hospital. The new facilities will be much larger, however, to accommodate modern — and often larger — technology.

“Equipment is bigger today … everything is bigger,” said Cavagnaro. “You can’t multi-task operating rooms anymore.”

As for patient rooms, the addition will provide facilities with more space and additional amenities, including cable television and wireless Internet, said Cavagnaro. There will be 18 new rooms overall, including 11 semi-private rooms that will provide both additional privacy for patients who want or need it, and room for family and visitors.

The six new intensive care unit rooms will also be larger and more modern. They will be equipped with VisICU, a 24/7 telemedicine system that connects Wing’s ICU patients with critical care specialists at UMass Memorial using computer-assisted surveillance.

As a result of the expansion, Wing will generate some flexibility in the form of the space that will be vacated in the current facility, said Cavagnaro, noting that several uses are being explored for the patient rooms on the third floor of the hospital. Gradual conversion for outpatient services is a likely scenario, he said, adding that the current operating rooms will be renovated into a new larger laboratory, with current lab space to be devoted to expanding radiology services.

The $23 million pricetag will be met through a $15 million bond from UMass Memorial Health Care, $5 million from the hospital’s capital fund, and the remaining $3 million through a capital campaign that is roughly two-thirds of the way toward its goal.

It has been helped there by a $1 million contribution from the Wing Health Foundation, and a recent $750,000 gift from Ware-based Country Bank for Savings.

“We’ve received tremendous support from the community on this project,” said Cavagnaro. “The last $1 million is always the hardest, but we’re confident that we’ll reach our goal.”

Expanding Horizons

He’s also optimistic about the broader goal — being able to adequately meet the emerging needs of the next generation of residents in a region Wing has served since 1913.

If community hospitals are indeed an endangered species, as Cavagnaro described, then survival will belong to the fittest. And staying fit — meaning the ability to continue to grow — is the main motivation behind this ambitious building project.