Mercy Hospital proposal and Maine Med expansion

[powhound]

Hey everyone my first post here. seems rather dead, but hopefully it can pick up.

Edit-Ahhh Crap spelled proposal wrong in my title, just another maine hick i geuss.

This is great for mercy hospital, if you ever have been to its location on state street you can see it is certainly cramped, with very little parking.

Im really surprised that maine med. didn't purchase this land, awhile back, it would have made a great complex for them. Instead they have built a rather nice complex in scarborough, i would have perferred there development stay in the city, but given maine meds location, they could only tear down apartments for more room or build up. should be interesting how maine med expands on there site.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/sta...6hospital.shtml

Mercy Hospital has won state approval to relocate to the banks of the Fore River, a move that will modernize the hospital and make it a gateway landmark for Portland.

The hospital, one of the state's busiest, hopes to break ground this fall and complete the $70.7 million project by early 2008.

After more than seven years of planning, "this clears the way for us to roll up our sleeves and make it happen," said Eileen Skinner, president and chief executive officer of Mercy Health System of Maine.

The project is just the first phase of a $160.7 million hospital project, the state's largest in at least a decade. At the heart of a 28-acre campus between the Fore River and St. John Street, a new 130,000-square-foot building would house services for pregnant women, newborns, cancer patients and people having outpatient surgery. A medical office building is planned next door.

Eventually, Mercy wants to build a 200,000-square-foot facility for the rest of its operations, such as the emergency room and the intensive care unit.

The campus will have direct access to Interstate 295 once the state finishes building a connector road from the interstate to west Commercial Street this fall. Visiting Mercy will be more convenient and that could boost the hospital's patient volume, currently the fourth highest in Maine.

The state, which granted Mercy a Certificate of Need on Monday, said hospital officials made a compelling argument for why they need to move services out of their cramped building on State Street, Mercy's home since 1941.

"Space issues, limitations on the lot where the hospital sits, parking considerations - all these presented barriers for really having an efficient service delivery at Mercy's main campus," said Catherine Cobb, acting director of the state Bureau of Elder and Adult Services, which studies medical expansion proposals that are expensive enough to trigger state review.

Moving to the edge of the Fore River will bring Mercy closer to its much larger rival, Maine Medical Center, which will start a $110 million expansion this spring featuring a four-story addition for obstetrical and newborn services.

Mercy executives downplayed the notion of heightened competition, and the fact that motorists headed north on Interstate 295 will see Mercy first, then Maine Med on a hill in the background.

"We think being that close is actually enhanced synergy over the long run," said Skinner, noting that the two hospitals share medical personnel.

Mercy's next step is to seek site plan approval from the city later this year. With the Cumberland County Jail and industrial buildings as its closest neighbors, Mercy seems unlikely to run into the same conflicts faced by Maine Med, which is in a dense residential neighborhood. Officials, though, said they still plan to reach out to neighborhood groups.

Mercy's move already has early support from city officials, who have predicted that it will help spark economic development in a long-ignored section of the city.

Gerald Cayer, Portland's director of health and human services, said updating Mercy's facilities will strengthen Greater Portland's health care system. "This will continue to meet health care needs for the next 100 years," Cayer said. The hospital has yet to pick an architect, but has begun working with clinicians on what the new hospital should look like.

Tina Hill, a nurse manager in outpatient surgery, pictures a hospital with a better layout for improved patient flow and larger operating and treatment rooms. "There will be more space for family and patients to relate to one another, and the environment will be a lot nicer," she said.

Mercy has already paid $6.3 million for the land, and will raise about $51 million in bond financing. The rest of the project is expected to be covered through a capital campaign and hospital funds.

Hospital officials said they would like to move the rest of Mercy's services by 2012. Mercy will submit another application to the state, and expects even more stringent review. Worried about about fast-rising health-care costs in the state, Gov. John Baldacci's administration this year started to cap the number of Certificate of Need projects that can proceed annually

[powhound]

Here is A view of where the development will take place, first thing you see coming into P-town.

Another pic of the portland connector, this is a HUGE improvment over what was there before.

[Cotuit]

They're finally finishing the connector? I don't know if I think that's a good thing or a bad thing.

[Cotuit]

Hey everyone my first post here. seems rather dead, but hopefully it can pick up.

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This section's a bit slow, but we have a steady trickle of Northern New Englanders who check in from time to time. If you know any other Mainers who would like to join in, by all means invite them.

Edit-Ahhh Crap spelled proposal wrong in my title, just another maine hick i geuss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Fixed.

[powhound]

They're finally finishing the connector? I don't know if I think that's a good thing or a bad thing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IMO i see nothing but positive things with the new connector. I drive through it everyday to work and have seen the progress everyday, i must say they did a nice job without affecting traffic to much.

In the second pic, im not sure if you have ever traveled on verterans bridge leading into portland/ commercial street, sounds like you have though, i must admit driving through the old configuration once in a awhile wasn't bad, but in summer and during rush hour, and the huge potholes, i must admit would drive me a little nutty, think i broke my horn in this area.

The street configurations were from a time's past, when traffic wasn't that heavy in portland, the layout was extremely inefficient, Traffic snarlup's were awful, the infrastructure was in really poor shape and the routing of the roads left alot to be desired.

Also you can see they don't have the bridge going into the west end neighborhood anymore, it has really created less traffic up there, and you don't have to drive through those little streets.

From the pic it doesn't look that nice, but when your street level asthetically its a big improvement. They have also added alot of running trails to the area, old street lighting, and better landscaping.

The unfinished part of the connector will let you drive right by the banks of the fore river, past land that just sat, dormant with no use. The connector opens up the land to development now and will let mercy build there new hospital, and other projects should follow. Hopefully with mercy abandoning there state street local, it will free up much needed apartment space.

It will let you get from usm, deering neighborhoods and reach the waterfromt without having to drive through the neighborhoods of the city. I think its a big plus.

[Cotuit]

Didn't there used to be a rotary at the end of the Veteran's Bridge. When I lived in Portland I didn't have a car, so I didn't drive around much. But when I did drive, I always liked to enter the city that way, coming in through there and down toward the Old Port is a nice entry into the city.

[powhound]

Didn't there used to be a rotary at the end of the Veteran's Bridge. When I lived in Portland I didn't have a car, so I didn't drive around much. But when I did drive, I always liked to enter the city that way, coming in through there and down toward the Old Port is a nice entry into the city.

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ya i totally agree its the best way to enter the city, entering commercial street is much better now, since its been completed.

ya they used to have the rotary, with that anchor in the middle. everyone had to stop before enetering so it created lots of traffic.

I hated driving on those roads, i was always afraid my rims would get bent, from the dips and craters in the road.