St Vincent’s Building New Cancer Center, Expanding ER

Bridgeport — St Vincent’s Medical Center of Bridgeport held a groundbreaking ceremony recently to mark the beginning of its $140 million expansion plan, which includes the construction of a new Cancer Center, an expanded Emergency Department, and a new parking garage. “Building on a Tradition of Trust” is the theme of the fundraising campaign.

The historical event drew more than 350 guests made up of benefactors, staff and local officials, including J. Robert Galvin, MD, MPH, commissioner, state Department of Public Health; Jennifer Jackson, president/CEO of Connecticut Hospital Association; Cristine Vogel, MPH, commissioner of the State of Connecticut Office of Health Care Access; and Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi.

St Vincent’s President and CEO Susan L. Davis, RN, EdD, welcomed everyone to what she referred to as the “latest chapter of St Vincent’s history.”

The centerpiece of the facilities plan is a new, 125,000-square foot, four-story pavilion, attached to the 500,000-square foot main hospital building that currently houses 397 beds.

This new wing will create the vital space needed to enhance and modernize the Emergency Department, to consolidate in one location and augment the services of the new Elizabeth M. Pfriem SWIM Center for Cancer Care and reorganize the hospital’s main level to cluster services, improve efficiency, and enhance access for patient convenience.

The expansion will create a campuslike setting on the eight-acre site at 2800 Main Street. A new 630-space parking garage designed to look like an office building will be constructed in front of the Medical Center.

St Vincent’s Foundation President Ronald J. Bianchi referred to the last time such a historic event took place at St Vincent’s. It was in 1903 when the original 75-bed hospital was built by the Daughters of Charity.

“At that time,” he said, “it would have been a dirt road at the end of the trolley line and no one thought people would travel this far from the center of the city for medical care.”

The new state-of-the art project will employ many “green” aspects, such as heat-reflective roofing, the use of recycled and renewable materials, and energy-efficient mechanical and electrical systems.

The interior will incorporate natural day-lighting thanks to the design of the two-story garden, which will connect the current building to the new one and around which the new SWIM Center for Cancer Care will be built.

Beneath this two-story garden will lie the new expanded Emergency Department, thus affording natural daylight into the depths of these critical care areas. Treatment modalities are arranged about this core of light.

A second garden is planned specifically for the cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments, permitting them to sit among plants and water features.

Champion of the new SWIM Center for Cancer Care, Elizabeth M. Pfriem, conveyed how “very personal” her involvement in the project is as she lost her husband John to cancer. “There was nothing available to him,” she said, “but now people will have great hope and a choice. It will be state-of-the-art, with the newest equipment for cancer detection and treatment.”

The Cancer Center will have its own entrance and will house a women’s imaging center, infusion therapy center, and integrative oncology center and a radiation oncology center.

The Emergency Department will be expanded to 40,000 feet, three times its current size, and will increase in number of beds from 28 to 60.

A new lobby, chapel, integrative cardiovascular center, and conference center are also part of the plan. Projected completion of the parking garage is in 2008, while the SWIM Center for Cancer Care and Emergency Department will be completed in 2009.