Strong Expansion Project Reaches Another Approval Milestone
The state Department of Health’s Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) has offered its support for the Strong Expansion Project, Strong Memorial Hospital’s most comprehensive modernization in nearly 50 years.
The project also has received a positive recommendation from the independent Community Technology Assessment Advisory Board (CTAAB). Based on these decisions, the state Department of Health has issued contingent approval of a certificate of need for the project and is expected to grant final CON approval in early 2023.
The Strong Expansion Project will add more than 200 examination/treatment and patient observation stations in phases to the Strong ED and Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP), increasing in size from 46,000 to 175,000 square feet. Plans also include a new nine-story inpatient bed tower scheduled for completion in 2027, which will add additional ED space and floors for future operating rooms and treatment services, along with more than 100 private inpatient rooms.
Community members passing by the site on Elmwood Avenue can now see activity required to enable the new building construction to commence. Prep work includes:
- Moving the existing cooling system, domestic water, electrical grid and telecommunications services that serve the adjacent existing hospital structure, including the ED. This will ensure uninterrupted service during construction.
- Relocation of loading docks to allow for continuation of critical shipments into and out of the hospital. They include:
- Clinical supplies vital for patient care
- Daily drop-off and pick-up of hospital linens averaging more than 100 tons each week
- Receipt of about 175 pallets of food for patients, visitors and employees each week
- More than 85 tons of waste per week
- Development of an offsite warehouse with multiple loading docks to manage many other supplies that need to come to the medical center.
- Creation of a new MRI/CT suite to serve inpatients. The current advanced Imaging inpatient suite exists within the proposed footprint of the Strong Expansion Project. Once the upgraded suite is complete this fall and in use, the current location will be closed and dismantled to make way for the impending construction.