Brattleboro (Vt.) Memorial Hospital is planning a $22.7 million expansion to house updated operating rooms, medical offices and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation facilities, reports VTDigger.
Brattleboro Memorial filed a certificate of need application with the Green Mountain Care Board — which is in charge of lowering Vermont's healthcare costs while maintaining quality care — to progress the expansion.
The proposal comprises four expansions, three of which will be housed in a new four-story, 5,045-square-foot building in the middle of Brattleboro Memorial's campus. Three expansions in the new building include replacing outdated operating rooms and installing a new central sterilizing area below the operating rooms; transferring the medical offices of Brattleboro Memorial's internal medicine, urology and general surgery practices into two floors of the new building; and a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation unit that is 700-square-feet bigger than the current one, including patient changing rooms and bathrooms. New boilers are also planned for the hospital's boiler plant.
Funding for the project comes in part from a $6 million donation from Brattleboro resident Ronald Read following his death in 2014. Another $6 million in "working capital" and an anticipated $10 million bond will finance remaining project costs.
Brattleboro Memorial's application is in a 90-day review period. Construction could begin later this year pending regulatory approval, with completion slated for 2019.