In the two weeks since UMass Memorial Medical Center held the grand opening of its $220-million acute-care facility the North Pavilion, the top executive of Central Massachusetts’ largest hospital is seeing it begin to alleviate the strain on its emergency department.
“This project is providing much needed relief to the inpatient hospital capacity constraints felt across the Central Massachusetts region,” UMMC President Justin Precourt wrote in an email to WBJ.
The 72-bed acute-care facility was filled within its first week of operations after opening on Jan. 14, said Precourt. UMMC has begun to see greater patient movement through its emergency departments with fewer patients waiting for beds.
The 73,000-square-foot facility features 72 private rooms with shell space for an additional 24, all part of the UMMC’s University Campus, which is part of the largest hospital in Central Massachusetts. Each room includes a family area with a couch that converts to a bed.
The North Pavilion rooms are furnished with technologies aimed at creating an easier and more effective stay. Patient rooms are equipped with beds that respond to voice commands, such as turning off lights and closing shades. In addition, all include flat screen TVs running UMMH proprietary software, enabling patients to view their charts and information about their stay, including diet plan, medications, and information about their condition.
While the North Pavilion doesn’t include emergency room beds, the acute-care beds at the facility will help provide relief at area emergency rooms where patients are waiting for beds to be available.
The new facility’s rooms are equipped with an interactive television system with educational materials and electronic boards, the latter automatically updating as patient’s physicians, nurses, and personal care assistants switch shifts.
UMMH has decorated the new facility with 240 pieces of artwork from more than 130 local artists, 20% of whom are people of color.
The North Pavilion’s opening comes after UMMH purchased the former Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in 2021 for $23.5 million with plans to convert it to an acute-care facility. The system later invested a total of $125 million in conversion costs over three years.
The North Pavilion marks UMMH’s first significant capital project used to directly utilize local, women- and minority-owned businesses as part of one of the system’s four anchor missions to enhance diverse spending. The firm used Maryland-based general contractor Whiting-Turner Contracting, which has an office in Marlborough, as the construction manager on the project.
As of mid-2024, UMMH reported 22% of the conversion projects contracts were secured with Worcester-based businesses, 34% were awarded within the UMMH service areas, and 4%, totaling $2.7 million, were with disadvantaged local enterprises. Exact local impact calculations are still being quantified.
“We saw this as an opportunity to overlay our Anchor Mission values, and we were thoughtful in local hiring and collaboration with smaller businesses. From the beginning, this was a collaboration with Whiting-Turner, our construction management partner. They had the experience building relationships with local, diverse businesses,” Kathleen Hylka, UMMH vice president, facilities and support services, said in the email.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
