Middlesex Hospital is nearing completion of a new $12 million critical care center that will nearly double room sizes, provide a new facility layout and put the not-for-profit health care provider on the cutting edge of technology.
The 24-bed facility is about 80 percent complete and is scheduled to open in September.
And it will be equipped with smart room technology, which connects in-room medical devices, like vital sign monitors, beds and IV machines, to electronic medical records systems allowing clinical data to be automatically uploaded.
Hospital officials say the new technology, which is used by few if any other Connecticut hospitals, should improve quality of care and reduce health care costs by freeing up time for the medical staff and allowing for quicker analysis of patient conditions.
“It will allow our medical staff to assist with the care of patients in a more integrated way,” said Vincent G. Capece Jr., the hospital’s president and chief executive officer.
Capece said Middlesex Hospital has experienced a 21 percent increase in patient volume over the past 10 years and expects demand to continue to rise with the aging population. At the same time, critical care patients are getting sicker.
The hospital, which serves 23 towns that encompass about 250,000 people, serves over 3,000 patients a year in its critical care departments.
Middlesex’s current critical care facility is too small, Capece said, and patient rooms lack space around the bedside to accommodate the necessary technology. They also offer limited privacy and do not have bathrooms.
The new facility will change all that. Its private rooms are more than twice the size of the current rooms.
It also has a unique layout.
Instead of a typical centralized information center, for example, separate computer kiosks have been arranged around the center putting nurses and doctors much closer to patient rooms.
But the real game changer is the new smart room technology, which has become increasingly popular at hospitals in recent years, but is now just starting to enter the Connecticut market.
By connecting medical devices to electronic medical records, doctors, nurses and patients are able to view clinical data in real time, including things like temperature and other vital signs.
There will be monitors inside and outside each room to display all clinical data as well as important warnings like a patient’s risk of falling, allergies and any other precautions that physicians may need to take.
There will also be capabilities to hook up cameras in the room so the medical staff can visually monitor patients.
Larger smart beds will also be part of the equation. The beds will have a built-in alarm system that sounds off when a patient is at risk of falling. The beds will also weigh patients automatically and help determine drug dosage amounts.
The technology alone cost $1.6 million, Capece said, but the hospital expects to recoup its investment in three to five years because of the associated efficiencies that should come along with using it.
Capece said the new critical care center is part of the hospital’s strategic plan in recent years to upgrade its entire campus. Most of the work is concentrating on renovations rather than new construction, although the hospital did open a new $31 million emergency department in 2008. The critical care center is an extension of that project because it is being built into a shell space on top of the emergency department.
The 24 new beds will replace an older critical care wing in the hospital, which will eventually be renovated, adding 10 additional beds to the critical care unit.
Although demand for services is expected to increase in the coming years, resources will not increase, Capece said. That means Middlesex will have to make its physical plant more efficient and effective.
With expected cuts in Medicare reimbursements, and a loss of $3 million from a new state hospital tax, margins will shrink considerably, Capece said.
Middlesex hospital has been spending between $20 million to $30 million a year from its capital budget on renovations, which will eventually touch all seven floors of the hospital.
Hospital officials are also considering moving the its medical center in Essex to a new location along the I-95 corridor to improve access to care along the shoreline.
