🔒Encompass Health seeks state OK to build $69.5M rehab hospital in Branford

Encompass Health Corp. wants to build a second rehabilitation hospital in Connecticut. The Birmingham, Alabama-based company filed a certificate of need (CON) application on July 25 with the state Office of Health Strategy seeking approval to build a $69.5 million, 50-bed, for-profit rehab facility on property at 596, 612 & 616 East Main St. 596 and 612 East Main St. currently are residential properties, while 616 East Main St. is a commercial/industrial property. None of the properties is currently owned by Encompass Health. Encompass Health declined to comment on the application. A hospital or health organization is required to file a CON application for a variety of reasons, including when it wants to establish a new healthcare facility. According to the 467-page CON application, Encompass Health, doing business as Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Branford LLC, would construct a one-story, 54,765-square-foot facility with 50 beds. The construction price includes “land costs and the associated sitework for the property including, for example, grading costs of approximately $1.35 million, rock allowance of approximately $750,000, allowance for retaining walls of approximately $300,000, and underground detention costs of approximately $900,000.” The facility would be Encompass Health’s second in Connecticut. It is building a 40-bed, $39 million rehabilitation hospital in Danbury, and in February it sought a six-month extension to complete construction. The Danbury hospital is expected to open in September. The company is the largest comprehensive physical inpatient rehabilitation facility provider in the nation, with 169 hospitals in 38 states. According to the application, the Branford facility would address “a gap in care for residents in the southeastern portion of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region and the contiguous southwestern portion of Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region.” Encompass states there are no inpatient rehabilitation facility beds “within or proximate to the defined 21 ZIP Code service area that will be served by the proposed new hospital.” The proposed facility would provide specialized rehabilitative care to patients recovering from a variety of injuries and illnesses, including stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputations, orthopedic surgery or injury, cardiac episodes and pulmonary conditions, the application states. It adds that the facility would include “all private rooms and baths; a well-equipped therapy gym; an Activities of Daily Living suite; a dedicated outdoor therapy area; a dialysis treatment area for patients to remain on-site when dialysis is needed; activities/day room for patients and families; and sufficiently sized and appropriately designed support spaces.” Once a CON application is filed, OHS has 30 days to review it. If it seeks additional information, an applicant has 60 days to respond.