As the new year arrives, Auburn Memorial Hospital is entering a new chapter of financial health, making it better equipped to treat its patients.
Thanks to gifts from six area foundations for construction over 2007 and 2008, the hospital will receive $4.4 million in matching grant money from the state's Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEAL NY) Phase II grant. At the same time, AMH is wrapping up a profitable year from operations.
The hospital must complete its construction project by the end of 2008 to get the entire amount of the grant. The project includes reconfiguration and modernization of the core Memorial Wing, including the creation of private rooms with patient and family amenities.
“The first thing that patients will notice is that all patient rooms are single,” Beverly Miller said.
Miller is the director of community relations and executive director of the Auburn Hospital System Foundation (AHSF), the hospital's fundraising arm.
Among other changes, there will be expanded operating rooms outfitted with the latest in surgical technology.
“All equipment will be updated to include laproscopic surgery,” Miller said. “This will allow better care and will attract top quality physicians.”
The project will relocate the hospital's psychiatric unit from offsite to a new, in-hospital unit.
“This is an area of the hospital now used for something else that will be remodeled,” she said.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems will all be upgraded.
Miller said the hospital was awarded the grant at the end of 2006, but in order to receive the funds, it had to find donors to match it.
“The project is under way,” she said, “and we are already paying the architects (HOLT architects). As we spend money, the invoices are sent to the state and they reimburse us for half of every invoice.”
Contributors to the matching grant include: AHSF, $2 million; The Allyn Foundation, $1 million; The Fred L. Emerson Foundation, $800,000; The Stanley W. Metcalf Foundation, $250,000; The D.E. French Foundation, $100,000; and The Columbian Foundation, $50,000. The hospital still has to raise $200,000 to meet the total amount of the grant.
“We are overwhelmed with this wonderful show of support from the philanthropic community,” said Scott A. Berlucchi, AMH president and chief executive officer. “The HEAL II project funded by these grants will give our community a state-of-the-art facility which will enable us to attract and retain the highest quality physicians and provide our patients with excellent care.”
Stephen L. Zabriskie, AHSF president, said, “We put our money up to start the pool; then we approached our traditional partners in the community and invited them to join us in investing in the long-term future of the hospital. We're pleased with the response.”
He said that the same foundations supported the hospital in 2006 by helping underwrite the financial turnaround project.
In 2007, annual revenues exceeded all expenses by nearly $1 million dollars, according to Robert Bergan, president of the AMH board of directors, a real turnaround from the multi-million-dollar losses in previous years.
Miller said the hospital expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by June 2008. It filed for Chapter 11 in April.
She said much of the hospital's earlier debt was based in its pension funding of retirees, but the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has now assumed the pension obligation.
“We will always be a community hospital,” Miller said.
In that light, she said that the hospital was still hoping to maintain a maternity facility.
The state's Berger Commission has recommended AMH do away with that service, a suggestion that hospital officials have opposed.
“We have put in an alternative plan (to the state) with fewer beds, but still open as a maternity unit,” she said
There will still be some instances where patients have to be transported to other hospitals for tertiary care, such as brain or heart surgery.
The AHSF will continue to manage the finances of the hospital and look for more sources of funding.
“It has been quite amazing,” Miller said of the hospital's new direction. “It's been quite a ride, exciting in a positive way.”
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleenbarran@lee.net
The hospital must complete its construction project by the end of 2008 to get the entire amount of the grant. The project includes reconfiguration and modernization of the core Memorial Wing, including the creation of private rooms with patient and family amenities.
“The first thing that patients will notice is that all patient rooms are single,” Beverly Miller said.
Miller is the director of community relations and executive director of the Auburn Hospital System Foundation (AHSF), the hospital's fundraising arm.
Among other changes, there will be expanded operating rooms outfitted with the latest in surgical technology.
“All equipment will be updated to include laproscopic surgery,” Miller said. “This will allow better care and will attract top quality physicians.”
The project will relocate the hospital's psychiatric unit from offsite to a new, in-hospital unit.
“This is an area of the hospital now used for something else that will be remodeled,” she said.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems will all be upgraded.
Miller said the hospital was awarded the grant at the end of 2006, but in order to receive the funds, it had to find donors to match it.
“The project is under way,” she said, “and we are already paying the architects (HOLT architects). As we spend money, the invoices are sent to the state and they reimburse us for half of every invoice.”
Contributors to the matching grant include: AHSF, $2 million; The Allyn Foundation, $1 million; The Fred L. Emerson Foundation, $800,000; The Stanley W. Metcalf Foundation, $250,000; The D.E. French Foundation, $100,000; and The Columbian Foundation, $50,000. The hospital still has to raise $200,000 to meet the total amount of the grant.
“We are overwhelmed with this wonderful show of support from the philanthropic community,” said Scott A. Berlucchi, AMH president and chief executive officer. “The HEAL II project funded by these grants will give our community a state-of-the-art facility which will enable us to attract and retain the highest quality physicians and provide our patients with excellent care.”
Stephen L. Zabriskie, AHSF president, said, “We put our money up to start the pool; then we approached our traditional partners in the community and invited them to join us in investing in the long-term future of the hospital. We're pleased with the response.”
He said that the same foundations supported the hospital in 2006 by helping underwrite the financial turnaround project.
In 2007, annual revenues exceeded all expenses by nearly $1 million dollars, according to Robert Bergan, president of the AMH board of directors, a real turnaround from the multi-million-dollar losses in previous years.
Miller said the hospital expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by June 2008. It filed for Chapter 11 in April.
She said much of the hospital's earlier debt was based in its pension funding of retirees, but the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has now assumed the pension obligation.
“We will always be a community hospital,” Miller said.
In that light, she said that the hospital was still hoping to maintain a maternity facility.
The state's Berger Commission has recommended AMH do away with that service, a suggestion that hospital officials have opposed.
“We have put in an alternative plan (to the state) with fewer beds, but still open as a maternity unit,” she said
There will still be some instances where patients have to be transported to other hospitals for tertiary care, such as brain or heart surgery.
The AHSF will continue to manage the finances of the hospital and look for more sources of funding.
“It has been quite amazing,” Miller said of the hospital's new direction. “It's been quite a ride, exciting in a positive way.”
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleenbarran@lee.net
Citizen
Hot Jobs
New! Off the Menu
The Citizens' Say
Post your comment - click hereThere are No comments posted.