FAQs
Why does Strong need more beds?
We are asking for an additional 123 beds – half of which are needed to accommodate existing patients that are currently boarding in our Emergency Department or other areas around the hospital. The need to better accommodate these patients drives the urgency of our application.
The University of Rochester Medical Center has seen tremendous growth in the number of patients coming here from outside our area. Today, about one-third of our patients come from outside Monroe County – they come here for complex, intensive care that can only be found at a major academic medical center like Strong: services like organ transplant, complex cardiac care and neurosurgery, pediatric subspecialty care, etc. This level of care often requires a longer length-of-stay.
Plus, our population is aging and that correlates with higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other conditions.
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Isn’t the local population projected to decline?
We hired Kurt Salmon Associates to do an analysis of bed need in the future. Based on demographic trends – namely the aging of the population – they believe that the Rochester area will need another 171 beds within 10 years.
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Isn’t the State looking to cut hospital beds across the state? Why would Rochester seek to add beds in that environment?
The Berger Commission has recommended that beds be closed or hospitals be consolidated in a number of communities where hospital capacity now exceeds need. That isn’t the case in Rochester where a decades-long tradition of conservative community planning tightly contained hospital growth and two hospitals have closed acute care beds in the last 10 years. Rochester’s five remaining acute care hospitals have only 1,805 total beds – or 2.44 beds per one thousand residents. This is considerably fewer beds per population than other communities in New York, which range from 2.8 beds per thousand to 3.4 beds per thousand residents. That’s creating real access and quality issues for us.
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How many beds are included in the PRISM project?
The additional beds are all adult beds. There will be 56 new adult beds in the Tower and 67 in the space vacated by the children’s hospital on the fourth floor. That adds up to the additional 123 beds we’re seeking approval for from the state. Although the children’s hospital will occupy 56 “new” beds in the Tower, they are not new beds on our license.
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Will this building have its own entrance?
The PRISM will not have its own entrance, but it may have its own lobby. The main parking are will continue to be the garage, so the natural pedestrian flow will still come through the main Strong lobby. New hallways may need to be created to streamline the path to the building.
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How will this affect parking at the Medical Center campus?
We are acutely aware of the parking crunch on campus. Keep in mind that – in the most optimistic scenario, we would not begin construction until 2009.
Short-term, we will continue to pursue off-campus parking lots and shuttles to help ease the congestion. Long-term, we are likely to need another parking garage. Also, unlike the other construction projects currently underway on our campus, we don’t expect there to be displacement of parking spaces to handle construction of the PRISM.
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Where exactly will the facility go?
The new PRISM tower will be a complete new build. The L-shape tower will be located west of the emergency department, and built on space that is partly covered by parking lots and drive through areas, as well as space currently occupied by maintenance and administrative offices. The latter areas will be demolished to provide the footprint for the PRISM tower.
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What about the Fitness and Wellness Center?
Medical Center leadership has committed to plans to rebuild an on-campus athletic facility. One of the scenarios under consideration would be to locate a new Fitness & Wellness Center in the new Clinical Translational Sciences Institute building (CTSB) that will stand on the west side of Helen Wood Hall. The expected completion date for the CTSB building is November 2008.
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How will the PRISM be paid for?
Financing for the $250 million project will include external debt (in the form of a bond issuance), philanthropy and cash reserves.
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