STATE APPROVALErlanger hospital first received state approval for a $68.7 million expansion at Erlanger East in 2004 that was good for four years, said Jim Cristoffersen, deputy general counsel for the Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency. The agency approves health care facilities' proposed projects and purchases through a certificate of need process.In 2008 Erlanger requested a two-year extension of its certificate of need, which extended the hospital's deadline to Dec. 1, 2010.The original expansion request included a new four-story patient tower, the addition of cardiac catheterization capabilities and the upgrade of an existing quick-care clinic to a full-scale emergency room, Mr. Cristoffersen said.
A proposed expansion of Erlanger East hospital in East Brainerd is moving forward seven years after the project first received board approval.
Hospital trustees soon will consider the next step of the multimillion-dollar expansion: the addition of a 24-hour emergency department at Erlanger's campus on Gunbarrel Road. Erlanger East today offers primarily obstetrical and gynecological care.
The Erlanger East expansion is part of Erlanger's overall strategic plan, which concentrates on building a niche area for each hospital campus, executives said.
For example, Erlanger North - which closed to new medical and surgical admissions in 2009, in part due to low patient volume - has a thriving inpatient geriatric psychiatric unit and is focusing on providing care to elderly patients.
The East expansion is "the next step in the strategic plan," said Britt Tabor, chief financial officer.
With 28 obstetrical beds and 12 surgical beds, Erlanger East focuses on short-stay, elective and ambulatory care for adults, including orthopedic surgery. The emergency room would serve a growing population in the East Hamilton County area, Mr. Tabor said.
Complex care, such as trauma services, will remain at Erlanger's downtown Baroness campus, he said.
"We don't want to be duplicating services," Mr. Tabor said.
The project, which was discussed in a closed session of the hospital's planning committee on Monday, likely will go before Erlanger hospital's budget and finance committee and then on to the full board within a couple of months, said Ron Loving, chairman of the planning committee, on Monday.
The emergency room addition is just one piece of the $68.7 million expansion plan. Erlanger has competed about $17 million of the project so far, Mr. Tabor said. He could not provide a cost estimate for the emergency department component.
Through a spokeswoman Joe Winick, senior vice president of strategic planning, declined to comment on the ER addition, saying it would be premature before the board approves it.
A $40 million settlement over allegations of regulatory violations in 2005 delayed movement on the original East overhaul proposal, which first was approved by the hospital's leaders in 2003.
In 2006, officials instead launched a piecemeal approach to the expansion, starting with a $5.9 million project that added seven new labor and delivery rooms and a new nursery, the Times Free Press reported at the time. The hospital also has purchased, and relocated, Galen Imaging for its diagnostic imaging services.
To avoid going into debt over the emergency department addition, Erlanger would fund that project, in part, by selling physician office building space at Erlanger East, ultimately leasing space back for their own physicians' use, Mr. Tabor said.
With the sale the hospital would lose about $1.4 million in rent payments in the upcoming fiscal year but save on utilities and tax costs, according to a preliminary budget presentation.
The sale of the office space also will be presented to the budget and finance committee early in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, Mr. Tabor said.
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