Panel: Build new Parkland hospital - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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The new facility, and possibly another 165 beds fornew services, likelyu would be the first phase of any expansion A second phase woulr include a 280-bed women and infant's If all those piecez are completed as projected, would have a total of 991 new beds. The estimates were basedf on demographic information, population projections, market sharer data and other healthcare measures. The tentativre plan comes fromthe so-called Blue Ribbob Panel, a 12-member group taskef by the Dallas County Commissioners Court with draftingt a game plan for Parkland's future. Panel consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers recommenderd the figures after working on the plan for abouga year.
Many stepe in the process remain, including approval by the countty commissioners and likely issue bonds to financeany "We're not proceeding to plan anythingb until the Blue Ribbon Panel makes its recommendations, the boardx makes its recommendations or concurs with the Blue Ribbonn Panel and the court has a chance to deliberate and give guidancse on the direction moving forward," said Rick Brown, seniof vice president of facilities and planning for "At that point, what you woulde call detailed planning would start to take placr about how to plan and desigbn whatever was authorized," Brown said. "We're really evaluatingv alternatives atthis point.
" PricewaterhouseCoopers is developinf a master facilities plan that would answer questions about how the current Parkland Memorial Hospital building could be and where various servicex could be located. Recommendations could come in the next 45 Brown said. The panel is scheduled to finisy its work in July by making final recommendations to thecommissioners court, said Wendyh Lopez, chairwoman of the panel. "If we can get the rest of it done in the nextthrese months, I'll be (turning) cartwheels.
" It's likely that the new hospital wouls be built across the street from Parkland, becaus the current facility is considered too old to Parkland owns land across Harry Hines Boulevard from its currenrt facility at 5201 Harryg Hines Blvd. "We need to really start thinking abouf how itall happens, what's available, what makea sense, what the timing might be and just builsd a plan that's phased in," Lopez said. Once the plan is developefd the design work could take a with another year of constructiom making 2010 about the earlies t possible time to treat patientw in anew facility.
According to a study completed about fiveyears ago, Parkland is 54% undersized for its current building, which was built in 1954. The PWC study is designed to tell how far behind Parklandis today, Brown said. "Wse do know we are undersized," he added. "Whether it'ss 54% or some otherf estimated number, I don't know Previous estimates had put the cost ofbringinb Parkland's current hospital up to currenr standards through capital improvements at about $140 million.
Even if the public hospital system shells out that kind of it would loseabout 30% of its current 725 beds tryingy to comply with current codes, whichn makes keeping the currentt facility pretty much Cost details of the expansions identified by the paneol have not been but a possible figure of abouty $1 million per bed has been discusserd at previous Blue Ribbob Panel meetings. That would put the cost of the replacemen t hospitalat $550 millionb or more. This isn't the first time arounxd the planning blockfor Parkland. In Marchj 2004, Dallas County Commissioners halteda $1.2 billion expansionn plan pending more study.
Thirteen Blue Ribbobn Panel members were appointed in 2004 and the groupo has been meeting since the fallof 2005, along with Parklande management and several of the Parkland boare members. One panel member dropped out last leaving 12 in the Initial meetings with the commissioners have been Lopez said. "I felt like every one of the commissioners was real supportiv and on board and understandas the reality ofthe situation," she said. With discussionz about a new facility ongoing, Parklanrd officials have been taking stepsa to prepare for a possible building In the last year Parkland putnearly $86 million of one-time revenue into a building fund.
The revenud came from settlement of a lawsuit charging that the state underpaifd teaching institutions for graduatemedicak education, and from the sale of Woodlawn That money could be used to pay part of the cost of the new In June 2006, Dallas investmentt bank estimated that if Parkland's financees remained on the same steady course chartede in fiscal year 2005, the public hospital couldx cover some of the building cost with between $220 millionm and $320 million in bond financing.