$4M Anonymous Gift Kickstarts ER Fundraising
Harrington HealthCare CEO Ed Moore announced today that its Webster campus, which it assumed control of three years ago, has received a $4 million anonymous gift meant to spur donations toward a new emergency room.
"We are in receipt of a challenge," Moore said. "We really need the community to back us with that and match that gift."
The gathering today at Harrington HealthCare at Hubbard was attended by medical staff and management, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of Springfield, State Sen. Richard Moore and representatives Kevin Kuros and Ryan Fattman.
Several Hubbard patients spoke in praise of the treatment they had received there.
Harrington announced nearly a year ago that it was designing a new emergency room for the hospital. The renovation would bring the Webster emergency room from five rooms to nine and modernize its facilities.
Harrington has raised approximately $500,000 so far, which amounts to $1 million including the match. The system needs approximately $3 million more to reach its $8.8 million goal.
Moore said in an interview after the event that Harrington cannot afford to fund the project out of its reserves. Harrington took over the struggling hospital in 2009. It leases the Webster campus from Hubbard's board of directors under an agreement that could last the next 17 years.
Moore was blunt about the state of the current emergency room.
"From a facility standpoint it needs a lot of improvement. When people ask me to describe the ER here I usually describe it as five stretchers and four curtains," he said. It's really lacking what's necessary in a modern emergency room."
Moore said Hubbard is cash-flow positive and that an expanded emergency room will help increase patient volume and revenues.
He said it will also affect peoples' perceptions.
"We're trying to have people believe they don't need to go to Worcester for most of their care," he said.
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