MERIDEN, Conn.-Veterans Memorial Medical Center is seeking certificate-of-need approval to build a new $70 million, 92-bed hospital. The new hospital is designed to replace two older hospitals that have a total of 140 beds. Through design and staffing efficiencies, the new hospital is expected to produce net annual operating savings of $3.5 million. If the CON is approved, there will be a groundbreaking in February 1996, and the opening is scheduled for July 1998. Construction of the new hospital will be financed through tax-exempt bonds guaranteed by Hartford (Conn.) Hospital. Both are members of Hartford-based Connecticut Health System.
NORWICH, Conn.-As part of a restructuring plan, Uncas on Thames Hospital eliminated 11 managerial and support positions and laid off 20 nurses last month, leaving about 40 employees on staff. The chronic-disease hospital, which has served primarily Alzheimer's and cancer patients, intends to close inpatient services and expand primary-care services. Just a handful of beds have been in operation. The restructuring plan has been approved by the board of trustees of the University of Connecticut. Uncas on Thames is part of the University of Connecticut Health Center, a Farmington, Conn.-based academic health center.
LANCASTER, Pa.-Lancaster General Hospital has opened a new 350,000-square-foot ambulatory-care facility that includes a health pavilion and two medical office buildings. Services within the $36 million facility include diagnostic imaging, physical rehabilitation, radiation oncology and outpatient surgery.
BROCKTON, Mass.-Brockton Hospital in late November announced a preliminary agreement with Burlington-based Lahey Clinic to form a partnership leading to the development of an integrated primary-care group practice in southeastern Massachusetts. The partnership, expected to become final early in 1995, continues Lahey's two-year effort to develop a geographic blanket of primary-care practices in the eastern half of the state. Brockton is a 289-bed community teaching facility affiliated with Boston University School of Medicine.
