>Are single patient rooms the reason Valley’s Renewal is 1.2mm square feet?
In August 2011 Orange Regional Medical Center (ORMC), a brand new, state of the art, single-patient room hospital opened in rural Middletown NY,. There are differences between this hospital and the Renewal that Valley envisions, but a review of the facts may raise some questions. ORMC’s new facility is not embedded in a residential community and space and land are not its primary constraints. Its 61 acre campus, next to routes 17 and 84 has abundant highway access for patients and visitors alike. But despite having abundant land available, that hospital was able to achieve something Renewal doesn’t on its 15 acre site. ORMC was built at 621,000 square feet, over 500,000 square feet smaller than Renewal. ORMC is less than 100,000 square feet larger than current Valley and within the pre-existing Master Plan’s allowance of what’s reasonable for Ridgewood. Sounds like modernization within limits may be achievable after all.
ORMC is smaller at 374 bed and although it has been said repeatedly over the recent past that there is a surplus of hospital beds in Bergen County this doesn’t suggest Valley reduce bed count. Renewal has 21% more beds than ORMC at 454, but Renewal needs 88% more square feet to achieve the single patient room objective. Square footage per bed, which includes all the diagnostic, surgical and administrative functions of the hospital come in 55% higher for Renewal. Remember ORMC is not space constrained, Valley is, yet Renewal is super-sized. What is Renewal using all that extra space for?
Where is ORMC putting the gigantic new, state of the art equipment that Renewal claims as the other reason so much space is needed? If Valley built Renewal’s 454 beds at ORMC’s per bed square footage, it would be 754,000 square feet. That’s 400,000 square feet smaller than Renewal. Can someone explain why Valley needs 400,000 square feet more to achieve the same objectives when they are constrained by their surroundings? Is Valley being inefficient with space or are they doing more than ORMC? Some of the difference may be attributable to retrofitting in older buildings, but the Bergen and Phillips buildings are being removed as part of Renewal, therefore at least 700,000 square feet of new construction is included in Renewal’s 1.2mm total and the retained buildings are less than 20 years old.
ORMC was built for $264mm, while Renewal comes in fully-loaded at $750mm. On a per bed basis that is over $930,000 or 2.2x more per Renewal bed than per ORMC bed. Some of that is explained by Northern NJ vs more rural NY state, and some may be explained by the subterranean floors of Renewal, but does that explain it all?
Despite its location in a residential neighborhood, accessed by single-lane roads, Valley generates far more traffic than an “average” hospital today. From the traffic expert’s testimony Valley traffic, as it exists today, is 8% higher per square foot, 31% higher per bed and 53% higher per employee than an average hospital. Growth in hospital traffic since the last major expansion is 3.4x more than Valley projected at approval without adding an additional bed in that time. What is Valley doing that makes it so much busier today than it said it would be? Is that what makes Renewal so much larger than ORMC?
In conclusion, this document should be considered by everyone involved in this debate and decision. The hospital’s trustees, doctors, nurses, employees and supporters need to have Valley’s management explain to them and Ridgewood, whose quality of life will be compromised by Renewal, to explain the reasons for Renewal being so much larger. This explanation needs to be in clear language without PR “spin”. We need to know what ORMC is doing right or what Renewal is doing wrong that there is this large a disconnect. Our elected officials need to consider both what is said and what is not said by the hospital about its plans, its current operations and how it intends to generate the funds to repay the Renewal related debt. ORMC specifically states that there won’t be higher charges for single patient rooms, so that isn’t how Renewal is funded. You can see for yourself at ORMC’s website or the attachment that showcases the new building.
Link to Orange Regional’s website and description on the building process.: https://tinyurl.com/3jypmn2
Orange Regional Medical Center New Hospital
