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May 15, 1997

Most medical center renovations planned for UPMC facilities outside of Oakland

Most renovations and construction projects involving University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) owned facilities this summer will be outside of Oakland at places like Braddock, South Side and Passavant hospitals.

On the Pittsburgh campus the only significant UPMC projects involve the completion of a chilled water plant at Scaife Hall, and the renovation of various patient facilities at Montefiore and Presbyterian University hospitals. The chilled water plant, which also will serve Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, will cost $4 million and will go on line in time for the hot weather, according to Ron Forsythe, vice president of Facilities and Support Services.

At Montefiore Hospital, patient rooms and other facilities will be renovated in line with the hospital's conversion from an acute care to a sub-acute care facility. Acute care involves short-stay, medical and surgical care, according to Forsythe. Sub-acute care is skilled nursing care.

After July 1, Forsythe said, UPMC will centralize its acute care in Pittsburgh at Presbyterian and Shadyside. All acute care patients will be transferred from Monte-fiore to Presbyterian or Shadyside hospitals by that date.

In addition to sub-acute care, Montefiore also will be used for medical lodging. It will become a place where individuals who come to UPMC for a one-day procedure, such as a cardiac cauterization, can stay until they are released by their doctor.

According to Forsythe, most of the renovations at Montefiore will be cosmetic. After the transfer of acute care patients from Montefiore to Presbyterian and Shadyside hospitals is completed in June, he estimates that it will take three or four months for the renovation work to be completed.

As far as costs are concerned, Forsythe said: "We're trying to pull that together right now. I hesitate to give a number because I don't know where it is going to end up." The reason Forsythe said he does not know what the final cost will be for renovations at Montefiore is because UPMC plans to move out-patient care from several other facilities to the hospital and he does not yet know exactly what that move will involve.

"We're going to try to consolidate a lot of the Oakland ambulatory care at Monte-fiore," he explained. "We have out-patient services scattered throughout Oakland and we're going to try to consolidate that at Montefiore." In addition, Forsythe noted, UPMC already has a substantial out-patient surgery program at Montefiore that it plans to expand.

To accommodate acute care Montefiore patients, Forsythe said that several closed patient units at Presbyterian will be reopened. Some former patient units that are now being used for other operations also will be converted back to patient units.

"It's not expensive because they were patient units to begin with and we did not severely alter them," Forsythe said. "We're not spending big bucks at Presby, but there is some work going on there now." Again, Forsythe said he did not as yet know the final cost for those renovations.

–Mike Sajna


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