Vassar Brothers' new building to open spring 2020; residency programs beginning

Already, Vassar Brothers Medical Center’s new building is a familiar sight in the City of Poughkeepsie.

Perched on a hill above Route 9, the eight-story building towers over travelers with its eye-catching exterior of glass and steel.

Though it was originally scheduled to be complete in January 2019, the more than half-billion-dollar project is still close to a year away from opening to the public, hospital officials said.

In the meantime, officials are touting other ways in which the hospital is expanding services to area residents, including the introduction of its first residency program this summer and its previously announced partnership to create a medical school with Marist College.

The residency program, which would begin with surgical, internal medicine and family medicine residencies, brings “a pipeline of medical expertise to the community,” Vassar Brothers Medical Center President Kerry Eaton said.

"It makes a community better, it makes health care higher quality, it creates an amazing patient experience and a place that caregivers want to work," she said Thursday at Vassar Brothers’ 14th annual State of the Medical Center Community Breakfast.

Eaton and other hospital officials offered updates on the various projects involving the hospital, which, with around 2,200 employees, serves as the City of Poughkeepsie’s largest employer.

The breakfast came nearly two months after Health Quest, which operates Vassar Brothers, announced a merger with Western Connecticut Health Network to create an expanded network of more than 2,600 physicians and seven hospitals which would be called Nuvance Health.

New hospital to open spring 2020

Although construction on the expanded Vassar Brothers hospital will be complete before the end of the year, spokesperson John Nelson said, it will not be functional until spring 2020.

Four years ago when it was first announced, the project was to cost $466 million, and include new patient suites, a trauma center and other upgrades in a new seven-floor building. But, plans were expanded to include an eighth floor, and the project’s total cost is now estimated at $545 million.

"The main thing that's pushed the extension of the construction is when we added the new floor," Nelson said. "That happened back in the beginning of the process. When we first announced it, it was going to open in 2019 but that was when it was only seven levels."

About 200,000-square-feet of metal panel facade, 13,000 light fixtures, 775,500-linear-feet of conduit, 3.45-million-linear-feet of cabling, 4,424 tons of steel, $30,000-cubic-yards of concrete, 1.4-million pounds of ductwork and 103,000-square-feet of glass make up the building, according to Eaton.

In addition to upgrades to its medical functionality, the building features a 240-seat cafe and private rooms featuring pull-out beds for visitors.

"It is very exciting to me as a healthcare leader that we have this building that is going to be an amazing space for our patients and amazing space for our caregivers," Eaton said. 

"Some of our facilities were a little bit not what they need to be, sometimes our equipment doesn't fit in the room," Eaton said. "So, we are very excited and around this time next year, we should be in the building."

Residency programs a month away

The residency programs will be available before July 1, Eaton said.

The surgical residency is a four-year program run by Dr. Mark Hirko, who will direct three residents every year for four years. Dr. Susan Eckert Collins is the director of the internal medicine residency program, which will bring 25 residents a year over the next three years to Vassar Brothers.

Dr. Hossam Hafez, family medicine residency program director, will oversee eight residents each year at Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck.

Eventually, Eaton said the hospital will add residency programs for obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, orthopedics and emergency medicine.

The announcement comes eight months after Health Quest and Marist announced their partnership to create what would be the first MD-granting college between Albany and Westchester.

Dr. Faiz Bhora, chief of thoracic surgery at Vassar Brothers, said part of the mission of physicians and physician educators is to help train the next generation.

"While the medical school is in the works, (the residency programs) will be about three years before that starts," Bhora said. "Having our residency programs up and running right now are an unbelievable addition to the mission of HealthQuest and Nuvance health being an academic medical center, with a vision to provide not only the best clinical care for our patients, but also to be involved in training the next generation of physicians for the community and country at-large."

The hospital injected $922 million into the local economy last year, officials said. Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, at Thursday’s event, called Vassar Brothers’ proposed changes “transformational.

“They are creating a world-class institution that can attract great physicians, create great physicians and others, keep people employed,” he said.

Ryan Santistevan: rsantistev@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4809; Twitter: @NewsByRyan_