New Hospital's Final Number: $41.8 Million

By JULIA WELLS

The new number is $41.8 million. The final number. Leaders at the
Martha's Vineyard Hospital now say this is what they must raise or
borrow in order to replace the decrepit building that houses the
Island's only hospital.

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"I think this is the number we are really going to run
with," said hospital chief executive officer Tim Walsh this week.
"Unfortunately I would have liked to see it come in a little lower
than that, but this is it - this is what we are going to work
with."

Hospital trustees learned the news at a board meeting held over the
Memorial Day weekend.

Formally launched late last summer and the most ambitious capital
project in the history of the Vineyard, the plan to build a new hospital
has proceeded in fits and starts. And the asking price has changed more
than once.

In August of 2003 when the plan was first unveiled, the cost was
estimated at $30 million. A few months later, as the plan took shape,
the price tag went up - way up - to $50 million.

Sticker shock reverberated around the Vineyard community and
hospital leaders vowed to bring it down. This week they kept that
promise.

The $41.8 million includes $1.2 million for renovating the existing
hospital building, and it also includes a five per cent contingency, Mr.
Walsh said. The per-square-foot price for the new hospital building is
$355, he said. The new building is currently planned at 89,000 square
feet. The per-square-foot price for renovating the old hospital building
now stands at $125.

Mr. Walsh said senior managers and hospital trustees will now
undertake the arduous task of examining financial feasibility. "We
are going to look at our debt capacity and our ability to handle
it," Mr. Walsh said.

Year-end financial statements released by the hospital last week
show that the hospital is operating in the black - even on a
combined basis - but is also carrying a medium-to heavy debt load.
Three years ago the hospital took on fresh debt when it bought back a
bond that was used to build Windemere. The entire campus was mortgaged
to pay $1.5 million for a $2.5 million bond. Windemere continues to
depend on hospital resources to remain viable, although the drain is now
less than it was a year ago.

A special board meeting is now set for the end of June, when
trustees will get a look at the final determination of need (DON)
application, which must be filed with the state by July 1. DON
applications are required by the state department of public health for
all capital projects over $10 million. The application includes detailed
reporting requirements for the specifications of the project -
including the financing plan.

Mr. Walsh said a community forum is planned for shortly after the
board meeting. No date had been set yet for the forum at press time.

The building project has gone through a series of changes. The
original plan called for razing the existing hospital in phases and
building a new, three-story structure with an emergency room and a
complete range of services including radiology, laboratory, surgery,
obstetrics, acute care and intensive care. A separate professional
building to house doctors' offices was also planned.

At a public forum last winter, Island residents were critical of the
plan to have the hospital face Eastville avenue. There was also some
criticism of the plan to build a separate professional building for
doctors, and many said that they were stunned at the $50 million price
tag.

A revised plan now on deck calls for building a new hospital that
will be married to the rear portion of the old 1929 cottage hospital.
The new plan calls for a building that faces Beach Road instead of
Eastville avenue, and it will not include a new professional building to
house doctors' offices. Instead, the existing hospital would be
renovated for use as office space, administration and other ancillary
services including day care, visiting nurses and complementary medicine.

"We have built the foundation for our broader vision - a
brand new hospital," wrote hospital board president John Ferguson
in an op-ed piece that is published on the Commentary Page of this
morning's Gazette. "We've always known that we could
not realistically ask for support for the construction of a new facility
until we proved that we were also good fiscal managers. . . . We are
ready to begin anew," he also wrote.

The architect for the project is Mark Rowland, an architect with
Thomas, Miller & Partners in Tennessee.