Page 22 - Healthcare News Jan/Feb 2022

MEDICAL CONSTR“UCTION & REAL ESTATE CONT’D
DR. ROBERT REDWOOD
the support structures people have for their mental-health needs are lacking, Redwood explained, calling for improvements in behavioral-health resources.
“We’re going to have a dedicated behav- ioral health pod,” he said. “The current pod for behavioral health has four beds, and, for example, we have pediatric psych warding as a challenge in Massachusetts. We have two patients who have been there for well over a month in the pod, so those are beds that aren’t turning over, they aren’t readily usable. An expanded behavioral-health pod will be just really beneficial for the com- munity.”
As noted, the price tag for the project is $15.5 million. Dr. Lynnette Watkins, presi- dent of Cooley Dickinson Health Care, re- cently announced a $1 million gift given by John and Elizabeth Armstrong of Amherst to contribute to the project. Additional fundraising efforts have been launched in these early stages of the project.
“What’s particularly exciting is that we had a group of individuals that came to- gether to help us get this launched and gave us collectively a million-dollar challenge:
to raise a million dollars by March 1, and then they’ll give us another million dollars,” Dukette said.
In regard to that $1 million goal, Cooley Dickinson has $117,000 left to raise over the next two weeks before it can garner the matching $1 million. Toward the end of the year, the hospital anticipates reaching out to the community for fundraising, which will coincide with when construction starts.
“This is a project that truly touches everyone in our community, and the club is honored to support the hospital,” said Steve Roberts, 2021-22 president of the Northampton Rotary Club, on the club’s recent $5,000 gift to the campaign.
Bottom Line
Redwood emphasized that, at the end
of the day, what the Cooley Dickinson Emergency Department really needs is real estate.
“We need physical beds, and having an expanded footprint will allow us to really meet our community’s needs,” he said. “So we’re building an ED for 40,000 to 48,000 ED visits per year. Right now we’re around 32,000 to 34,000 visits per year, but the Val- ley is a popular place, it’s only growing, and we know we’re going to need that capacity.”
Both Redwood and Dukette enthusiasti- cally stressed that this project is essential for the well-being of their community.
“We’re extremely proud of the fact that we are very inclusive, and we do everything we can to make whoever shows up in our emergency room feel welcomed and cared for,” Dukette said. “We’re a team.” v
pioneer within its larger healthcare system, We are sort of in the midst of Mass General Brigham. Indeed, it is the
first hospital within the 13-hospital system a burnout epidemic as well to receive that accreditation. Other facili-
Another improvement to be included be a place where staff feel in this project is a larger behavioral-health
ties in the system are going to follow suit,
Redwood noted. and we want our facilities to
pod, the need for which has only been exac- erbated by two years of pandemic.
The phenomenon has been referred to as the “syndemic” — the COVID-19 pandem- ic plus a mental-health epidemic. Many of
proud to work and are able to take care of patients but also
take care of themselves.”
during the COVID epidemic,
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