The Hospital Gets Bigger
by Lynn Behrendt

Large excavating machines, steel beams welded three stories high, workers in hardhats: that's what people see when they drive by Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck these days. Even a quick glance makes it clear that something big is going on there.

Since the groundbreaking celebration on June 10, 2004, Northern Dutchess Hospital has been engaged in the largest building project in its history. The modernization will include a 53,000-square-foot addition, as well as 28,000 square feet of renovation, plus seven acres of site work. The four key components include: a brand new emergency room; a new Center for Orthopedic and Rehabilitative Care, renovations to several key patient/visitor areas, and an expansion of the Diagnostic Imaging Department.

Even though it's the biggest building project ever undertaken at the hospital, it certainly is not the first. The very beginnings of what we now know as Northern Dutchess Hospital took place in 1903 when funds from the Thomas Thompson Trust enabled two buildings on Livingston Street to be purchased to create a 14-bed infirmary known as the Thompson House Community Center. Many additions and expansions over the years have brought the hospital to where it is today: a 68-bed facility with 200 practitioners in nearly 30 specialty areas.

One way that NDH has coped with the changes in our region, and in health care delivery in general, has been to form a partnership with Putnam Hospital Center and Vassar Brothers Medical Center under the corporate umbrella of the "Health Quest" health care system. Formalized in 1999, the arrangement is often referred to as a "merger," but each hospital maintains its separate identity. Some services such as patient billing and purchasing are shared in an effort to reduce expenses for all members of the partnership.

It is often difficult to understand the inside workings of these new health "partnerships" and the impact they have on us clients and patients; but they definitely are the current trend and seem to be one way of helping hospitals survive. Hospitals are, when you get right down to it, businesses. That means several things for the health care consumer. In one way, it's a good thing that hospitals need to be concerned with market share and profitability: because of these concerns, they strive to draw the finest physicians and to have better equipment than their competitors. On the not-so-positive side of the coin, this competition and restructuring can confuse the consumer and make it difficult to discern where to go for what health condition.

I think it's important to remember that a person can go to whatever hospital he or she chooses for emergency care and most other services. Unlike choices of primary care physicians or specialists, or brands of medicine—not to mention the host of other restrictions placed on you by your HMO—HMOs allow much more flexibility when it comes to choosing a hospital. For example, the hospital in the Health Quest System that would be capable of treating someone in your family who needed extended psychiatric would be Putnam Hospital Center, since Putnam is the only one of the three Health Quest partners that offers inpatient psychiatric care. But since Putnam is located far away in Carmel, it might make more sense to seek help closer to home at Benedictine Hospital, in Kingston, which also houses a renowned psychiatric unit, but which is not part of the Health Quest System.

One thing everybody wants from a small local hospital is excellent emergency care. Happily, one of the chief components of NDH's building project is the creation of a brand new emergency room. A new ER has been urgently needed at Northern Dutchess for some time. The existing one, built in 1972, was designed to serve around 7,000 patients per year. The hospital now currently sees nearly twice that number.

The new 3,000-square-foot ER will feature a state-of-the-art trauma/treatment/observation suite that will allow ER staff to continuously monitor the most critical patients. It will also include a dedicated pediatric room, a private suite for women who need emergency gynecological care, and a dedicated orthopedic injury room, complete with a cast room. A "negative pressure room"—a self-contained, airtight room that does not allow its air to be recycled throughout the hospital— will be created as well. Such a room can be used to contain patients with airborne, infectious diseases should the need arise.

If you stand on Route 9 and look toward the hospital, the new Emergency Room will be located on the right half of the new building. There will be a separate paramedic/ambulance entrance. Access to the ER will be greatly improved, since it will be located in the front of the hospital, with direct access from Route 9. Anybody who in the past has had to weave through various parking lots and roads to reach the old ER in the very, very back of the building will understand what a great improvement this will be.

The new Paul Rosenthal Pavilion for Orthopedic and Rehabilitative Care will be located in the left/southern half of the new building. It will be a fully integrated orthopedic center that will house rehabilitation services, pain management, the Arthritis Center, Physical & Occupational Therapies, and a host of other related support services in one easily accessible, centralized location. The hospital will be the leader for rehabilitative services within the Health Quest System. Three floors will be dedicated to Orthopedics, with outpatient services on the ground floor and the longer-stay services situated on the second and third floors.

Besides the addition, a good deal of renovation will take place in the existing hospital as well. Since most inpatient rooms are housed in a building constructed in 1929, part of the renovation will include improving and expanding existing patient rooms. A new main entrance will be located on the left side of the building as you look from Route 9. A fifth operating room is being added, as well as additional parking.

The whole project at NDH will cost around 17 million dollars. A fund raising campaign goal of 10 million dollars was set; and roughly 9.3 million has been raised to date, including a million dollar donation from Mrs. Martha Rosenthal Barry, a million dollar donation from the Dyson Foundation, and a $500,000 gift from the foundation that made the creation of the hospital in 1903 possible—the Thomas Thompson Trust. The new ER is scheduled to open in June 2005. (For those concerned about disruption of service when the new ER is being opened—the hospital plans to transfer from the old ER to the new one in a matter of 24 hours.) All renovations should be finished around November 2005. Optimus Architecture of Rhinebeck designed the new building; and Turner Construction is doing the work.

Other Services at NDH:

• Women's View, a health annex that offers services for things like urinary incontinence and pregnancy massage in a more private, less clinical setting. The annex, located at 107 Montgomery Street, opened in May 2004. Women's View also sponsors community lecture series about a variety of women's health topics and provides complementary health care services such as Reiki, massage therapy, nutritional nd weight loss counseling, support groups, etc.

• The Neugarten Birth Center, located behind the hospital in a building that looks on the outside like a charming country cottage. Inside is a fully equipped birthing center offering comfortable, private rooms in which families can stay over. Water birthing is now an option. Classes are offered in childbirth preparation, infant care, breastfeeding, mothers' support group, prenatal and postpartum yoga and exercise, and lactation counseling.

• A sleep disorders lab that provides overnight testing from 8pm to 6:30am (after which you get a complimentary breakfast).

• A host of free community education programs including an active physician lecture series, support groups, and more.

• For More Info about NDH go to www.northerndutchesshospital.org or www.health-quest.org