PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Hospital today announced that, having been granted a Certificate of Need by the Health Services Council at the R.I. Department of Health, it is ready to begin a three-phase expansion.
Phase One – slated to begin this month and be completed by early 2009 – will add three more floors to the top of the Bridge Building. (The hospital’s newest building, housing the emergency department, a surgical suite and a parking garage, it was designed to allow for such expansion.)
The addition will give the building another 91,660 square feet and 110 beds, 61 of which will replace the beds now in Jane Brown South. The new units in the building will be dedicated to telemetry and cardiac care, and will be accessible via an entrance on Dudley Street.
In Phase Two, the Jane Brown North building will be fully renovated, with private beds and a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
In Phase Three, the 10th Floor of the Main building/Zecchino Pavilion – now home to cardiac intensive care – will be converted to general medical and surgical use.
Ultimately, the hospital will have gained 49 available beds, for a total of 657, and 61 private-room beds, for a total of 414, including private beds on all intensive-care units.
The project, whose total cost is estimated at $60 million, is being funded through investment return and current equity, the hospital said. Shawmut Design and Construction was the winning bidder for the project, which is being designed HOK, the award-winning firm that designed the Bridge Building.
Rhode Island Hospital, founded in 1863, is a private, nonprofit institution, a founding member of the Lifespan health system and the largest teaching hospital of Brown Medical School. Additional information is available at www.rhodeislandhospital.org.