St. Luke’s: Downtown Boise expansion plans target efficiency
By Audrey Dutton, The Idaho Statesman | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
St. Luke's unveiled a long-term sketch last month of its plans for
The
St. Luke's has grown by thousands of employees and added hospitals and doctors to its roster in recent years. It has vowed to bend the rising curve of health care spending downward. Growth will help make that possible, its executives have said -- one of the arguments St. Luke's made in the antitrust case it lost before a federal judge last fall.
St. Luke's said its latest plan, in the works for years, illustrates a shift in how hospitals are providing medical care.
"This is a more conservative (approach) than we would have taken 20 years ago," said
St. Luke's based its blueprint on the assumption that 206,191 more people will live in the
"We are a hospital in an urban setting that is continuing to evolve," said
MOVING PARTS
Roth described the plan as happening in three broad stages.
--Get the infrastructure in place for growth. This includes building a new central plant, which is the behind-the-scenes engine for the hospital. The existing plant is almost 50 years old. The hospital also needs more parking, and St. Luke's is hoping to mesh its plans with the city's vision for the future of Downtown transportation.
--Focus on children's services. This includes building a new
The pavilion also sets up the hospital to add about 50 pediatric doctors and offer new services: pediatric cancer care, pediatric anesthesiology, a school, a pediatric emergency room and new pediatric medical imaging. The hospital also plans to have all-hours neonatal care.
The Family Medicine Residency of
--Improve and expand what's already there. This includes building a new wing to the north of the hospital and remodeling part of the existing hospital. As St. Luke's builds a new wing and the
The brick-and-mortar hospital will be improved -- with spacious and well-lit rooms, equipped for new technology, arranged in a way that keeps patients from having to travel between floors.
GETTING A HEAD START
St. Luke's officials say they're on a quest to keep people out of the hospital. Why? It's expensive and relatively risky to be there. And under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals now stand to lose some of their
However,
They predict that as the
But St. Luke's doesn't think more patients will need 24/7 nursing care, because they will be able to see doctors in clinics or receive care at home.
The rest of the plan consists of parking, outpatient offices, more room for testing and diagnosing patients, and upgrades.
WILL PATIENTS FOOT THE BILL?
Like other nonprofit hospitals, St. Luke's is funded mostly by
"The general thought process is you don't raise prices to cover the additional building cost," he said. "That's a strategy you definitely don't want to do."
Instead, he said, smart hospitals are thinking about how to build in efficiencies, as <org>Medicare and other health insurers use payments as an incentive to make hospitals speedier, safer and less bloated.
A former
"Health care facility planning today requires a very sophisticated crystal ball," said
Bodnar said St. Luke's has "historically done a very good job of projecting facility demands," based on how busy its
He said the same is true at Saint Alphonsus, St. Luke's smaller rival. Saint Al's is owned by the
Saint Alphonsus declined to comment for this story.
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