Why Should Delaware Care?
A planned expansion of a hospital in Dover would bring nearly 100 new beds to Delaware, something the hospital’s CEO said would be needed to address an “onslaught” of hospitalizations and “sicker” patients.
Bayhealth, the state’s second largest hospital system, announced last week that it would pursue a near $250 million expansion to its Dover facility in anticipation of a “heavily aging” and “sicker” population.
In total, the hospital expects the first phase of its construction to cost $248.67 million.
Bayhealth CEO Terry Murphy told Dover city officials the renovations are part of an effort to modernize the hospital, as well as accommodate for more emergency room visits in the future.
Bayhealth already has two campuses in Dover and Milford with a total of 418 beds. But Murphy said that would not be enough to properly treat an aging population in the coming years.
He added that the hospital would need at least 97 new inpatient beds by 2033 “just to take care of the population.” As part of that, the hospital hopes to add two new floors to its emergency department in Dover and six additional stories to a separate wing of the hospital.
“My responsibility is to really be prepared for the onslaught of what’s coming down the road,” Murphy said. “Which is a heavily aging population and a more sicker population.”
Murphy said the hospital has the goal to have all private rooms after the expansion and replace aging infrastructure. He also said he hopes the expansion would bring down operating costs for the health system.
“We’re not going to build a 1926 building,” Murphy said. “We’re going to do this project that’s really geared toward the patient and the caregiver.”
To accomplish this, Murphy said the new renovations would focus on “verticality,” where services and beds are all housed in the same building, similar to its campus in Milford. He said this would help combat “hospital sprawl,” where hospitals build out on their surrounding campus instead of up.
In the long term, Murphy said the hospital would build a new 500-car parking garage and remove some of its older facilities on the main campus. Additionally, Murphy said Bayhealth would begin to move its “non-hospital-based services” to the Blue Hen Mall, which already has a primary care clinic.
The hospital still has multiple public approvals it needs to receive from the city before the project can proceed, including approvals from Dover’s Board of Adjustment, Planning Commission and City Council.
Bayhealth is not the only hospital system looking to expand its operations. In recent months, the state’s largest hospital system, ChristianaCare, announced its hopes to merge with Virtua Health, the largest health care provider in Southern New Jersey, while undertaking more than $800 million in facility upgrades in Delaware.
ChristianaCare also announced it would expand services at its emergency room in Middletown, creating a new health center.
According to a press release announcing the expansion, the center would provide “primary care, women’s health, behavioral health, oncology, cardiovascular care, imaging and laboratory services.”
Beebe Healthcare in Sussex County is also looking to build out a new emergency department in Millsboro, according to the Delaware Business Times.
TidalHealth, which operates a hospital in Seaford, recently merged with a smaller regional health system on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, further consolidating options within the state.
As hospital systems grow more powerful within their respective regions and competition wanes, researchers have said it could impact the quality of care, and drive up costs for consumers. In Delaware, options are already delineated by county, with only one or two health systems in each of the state’s three counties.
