Crain’s Cleveland Business Healthy growth plans

1/11/2010

By SHANNON MORTLAND

4:30 am, January 11, 2010


St. Vincent Charity Hospital for more than a century has maintained a quiet existence on East 22nd Street in Cleveland, but a planned, $150 million renovation effort will aim to boost its presence and give it a new look.

The 145-year-old hospital in April plans to raze three buildings — the newest of which is 82 years old — to make room for a new surgery center, gardens and parking lots, said Beverly Lozar, vice president of professional and support services at St. Vincent.

“We had a significant number of buildings and, quite frankly, they were very minimally occupied,” said Sister Judith Ann Karam, president and CEO of St. Vincent and the Sisters of Charity Health System, which owns the hospital.

The project will take eight to 10 years to complete. Among other things, it will transform the hospital's bed tower into private patient rooms, consolidate all radiology and MRI services in one building, and create a new entry to the hospital that will face downtown.

The goal is to create a modern hospital that will attract doctors and patients while remaining committed to its mission of caring for the poor, Sister Karam said.

The 110,000-square-foot surgery center is perhaps the centerpiece of the project and will open in 2013, Ms. Lozar said. The three-story building will enable patients to remain on the same floor throughout the various stages of their care, rather than transport them to different floors as they are now, she said.

St. Vincent needs operating rooms with higher ceilings to better accommodate modern surgical equipment, which will allow the hospital to promote programs such as bariatric surgery and heart care, Sister Karam added.


All the amenities
Privacy will take the spotlight in May as the hospital begins the floor-by-floor renovation of its bed tower into private rooms that will look more like hotel suites than hospital rooms — which is a trend among many hospitals as they remodel.

One floor already has been remodeled into private rooms that feature dark wood armoires and a head board that resembles a fireplace mantel, where much of the medical equipment is hidden. The rooms also have granite countertops, flat screen televisions, tile bathrooms and sage green walls.

The nurses' station on the renovated floor looks like a hotel front desk, and all patient rooms are recessed from the hallways to hide much of the work being done.

Older patient rooms now are semi-private with two beds separated by curtains hanging from ceiling rails and sport the white, sterile look of an aging hospital.

The parking situation will be improved as new lots are paved on the land that now hosts the three buildings slated for demolition. Ms. Lozar said patients and visitors now must park across East 22nd Street and access the hospital by crossing a busy road or walking over a bridge. Parking garages will replace the surface lots in 2016, she said.

Visitors will be greeted with more green space, decorative brick pavers and a new façade, which will face northwest toward downtown Cleveland. The existing main entrance, which now faces southwest, then will be remodeled to include a new chapel and expanded cafeteria in 2017, Sister Karam said.


Big price tag
Private donations, public grants and financing will foot the bill for the $150 million plan, Ms. Hoke said.

St. Vincent this month created the St. Vincent Charity Foundation to raise money for the project.

Sister Karam said the hospital also will apply for federal stimulus money and state grants to help pay for asbestos abatement, install new boilers and improve the hospital's information technology system. St. Vincent already has received $700,000 in federal grants for IT, Sister Karam said.

While designing the project to improve its own operations, St. Vincent also kept in mind the best interest of the city's Campus District, which includes St. Vincent, Cuyahoga Community College and Cleveland State University. The three entities are working in tandem to transform the area into a more walkable community that connects the three institutions.


The view from the street
East 22nd Street is the group's biggest hurdle, said Jack Boyle, vice president for business affairs and finance at Cleveland State. The group is considering streetscaping and reconfiguring East 22nd to allow two-way traffic on at least a part of the street that now allows only one-way traffic.

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said the county might provide a grant to St. Vincent to study the reuse of the juvenile court and detention center on East 22nd. The buildings will be vacated by the end of the year when construction is completed on the new juvenile justice center at East 93rd Street and Quincy Avenue. The Campus District jointly would decide the best use of the old site, Mr. Boyle said.

Tri-C envisions a district that encourages people to walk from one institution to another, said Michael Schoop, president of Tri-C's downtown campus.

Mr. Boyle said the Campus District is in talks with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit System to determine whether its E-Line trolley could include areas near St. Vincent and Tri-C. The E-Line now runs up Euclid Avenue and turns around at East 22nd Street.

“We're trying to create more of a unified feel so when you're at Tri-C or St. Vincent, you could easily walk to Cleveland State,” he said. “From a pedestrian standpoint, it certainly doesn't feel connected (now).”