UPMC plans Monroeville hospital - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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UPMC is seeking plannintg commission approval to builda 333,789-square-foot hospital and 260,955-square-foot parking garage on a 16-acre plot on Mossid Boulevard. UPMC bought the hotel, the former , for $19 millio n in March. The health care giantg also bought three nearbyu parcelsfor $875,000. At the time of the UPMC officials said the facility would only be an adultgoutpatient facility. It’s uncertainm when plans were changed to accommodata full-service hospital.
“We have drawnj up plans to consider making the Palace Inn sitea full-servic hospital and have filedc the necessary paperwork with the UPMC spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz said in a prepared He declined to will conduct a publix hearing on the issue Nov. 19 at the municipal Monroeville Manager Marshall Bond said the which couldcost $250 million, wouldr eventually be approved. "Judgingf by the team they have involved, I have everyg reason to believe it will be he said. The new hospital will improve convenience for the 90 to 150 residentss ofthe city's eastern suburbs who alreadgy visit UPMC hospitals every day in Bond said.
"They seem to be very The Forbes Regional Campus of The is less than two milewsfrom UPMC’s proposed facility, which addeds open-heart surgery capabilities this year. Both hospitals are operatefd bythe , the second biggestt hospital network in the region and UPMC rival. Declininv reimbursement and population loss have contributerd to the closing of in Lawrencevillw in 2002 and the acquisition this year of the formed Mercy and Mercy Jeannette hospitals by UPMCand Greensburg-basef respectively. Yet, independent consultant Dr.
Martinm Fenster questioned the need for another hospital in saying Pennsylvania needs to reinstate the certificatew ofneed program, which requiredr state approval for big hospital expenditures. "That's the stronges argument yet for a certificatreof need," said Fenster, who is principaol of Fox Chapel-based for the 21st Century. "They're going to have to covere their costs. "Is this the time to put more beds in the Ann Torregrossa, deputy director of Gov.
Ed Rendell'sx Ofice of Health Care said she wasn't familiar with details of UPMC's plan, but said she was concernee about the impact on healthcare "We know that when you have too much it will drive she said. "If they buildf it, they will fill it, whichy drives up the cost of health carefor everyone."