The Washington Hospital Surgical Suite Renovation/Expansion

Washington Health Care Services, Inc. (WHCS) is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit charitable health system that owns and operates The Washington Hospital (TWH) and affiliated healthcare centers in Washington County, Pennsylvania. As a 265-bed, acute-care community hospital located in the City of Washington, TWH is the largest employer in Washington County and a leading provider of comprehensive healthcare services in the region.

During the past two decades, TWH’s service area population has aged rapidly and now includes a population with 18 percent of individuals exceeding the age of 65. TWH has correspondingly witnessed significant increases in service demand, including a 28 percent increase in surgeries, a 32 percent increase in emergency department (ED) visits, and a 21 percent increase in in-patient admissions. With the operating room (OR) running at maximum standard utilization and the ED operating at 128 percent of functional capacity, coupled with an inefficient layout of service areas and an outdated facility, TWH was in need of requisite capital improvements.

TWH engaged Delta to develop a public funding strategy to help advance a $64 million, three-year multiphase capital improvement project - the most extensive in the hospital’s 110-year history. Delta identified the Commonwealth’s Infrastructure and Facilities Improvement Program (IFIP) as a resource and worked with hospital management to secure the support of key project stakeholders to seek funding through the program. The IFIP provides annual grants to local issuers of debt to finance eligible infrastructure and facility improvement costs through conventional loans or bond issues. The annual state grant is effectively “reimbursed” by the new state taxes generated by the project.

TWH was awarded a $6 million IFIP grant, or $300,000 per year for the next two decades, to help finance the debt service costs associated with phase IV of this project, estimated to cost $10.2 million. The IFIP scope of the project includes the renovation and expansion of the OR and critical care unit (CCU), including four new operating rooms, the construction of a new 26-bed CCU, and the relocation of outpatient services and the pre-admission and testing center. The project will result in approximately 34 new jobs created. With the assistance of the IFIP award, TWH was able to undertake this significant renovation and expansion project to support the continued provision of quality healthcare in Washington County and surrounding communities.