VIDEO | Beebe announces plans for new healthcare facility in Lewes
Beebe Healthcare has announced plans for a new $180 million healthcare facility at their campus in Lewes.
The announcement, billed as historic, was made at the Margeret H. Rollins School of Nursing in Lewes on Friday afternoon. With a price-tag of $180 million, the Margeret H. Rollins Pavilion will feature four levels, over 200 private rooms, in order to enlarge the healthcare campus and services.
This new expansion will include both new facilities and new services on three campuses as Beebe Healthcare works to meet the needs of the growing region. Construction on the first phase of the expansion is expected to begin as early as the fall of 2018.
Delaware 105.9’s Rob Petree was on-hand for the announcement and interviewed Judy L. Aliquo, President & CEO for the Beebe Medical Foundation. Aliquo said the new facility will feature all private rooms and is needed because of the growing population of Sussex County.
“It is a four-story building here on this campus and it will include private rooms, a second floor of women and children’s center here on this campus, but it will be a private room facility,” Aliquo explained. “Our facility is full, and often we need more beds, so we are embarking on a very ambitious expansion plan to serve our community.”
A gift of $10 million was provided by the Ma-Ran Foundation to name the Margaret H. Rollins Pavilion on the Lewes Campus. The gift represents the largest gift received by Beebe, the largest gift in Sussex County, and one of the largest gifts made in the state of Delaware.
The $10 million gift will partially fund a four-story patient wing and pavilion on the Savannah Road campus that was recently announced as part of Beebe Healthcare’s proposed $180 million facilities and services expansion. This wing will extend the capacity for complex medical and surgical cases, add all private rooms, and create a dedicated new Women’s and Children’s Department on the second floor.
The Rollins family has supported Beebe for more than 30 years with their loyal support. In 2011, R. Randall Rollins and Margaret (Peggy) H. Rollins donated $3 million through their Ma-Ran Foundation toward the expansion and naming of Beebe Healthcare’s Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing, previously the Beebe School of Nursing. This project, completed in 2015, doubled the capacity of the school, and replaced the 50-year-old dormitory with a new three-story, 18,000-square-foot-building containing new, modern classrooms and clinical laboratories.
“As Beebe continues to plan and develop services, programs, and facilities for our growing population, we will look to those we serve for their continued confidence in what we are doing as well as their support to help us expand throughout the county,” said Jeffrey M. Fried, President and CEO of Beebe Healthcare. “Beebe has been so fortunate over its 100+ year history to be able to count on the community not only for their support of our physicians, nurses, and other team members and the services they provide, but also for their financial support and investment in Beebe.”
The plan calls for an expansion on the hospital campus in Lewes that will create all private rooms for complex medical and surgical inpatients. The expansion will include a new labor and delivery wing to serve the growing population of young families. The Lewes campus will remain the site of heart and vascular care, and the plans include creation of a dedicated Heart, Stroke and Vascular Center of Excellence. “By focusing the Lewes hospital campus on complex inpatients, we can improve the care they receive as well as become more efficient,” state Rick Schaffner, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Beebe will unveil more details of its plans over the next several months as building designs are completed. Community meetings, events, and publications are planned to keep the community informed of the expansion of healthcare services.
PROJECT UPDATE [JUNE 15, 2018]: Due to anticipated changes in our community’s use of healthcare facilities and services, we have re-evaluated the scope of our expansion and decided to enhance and expand access to advanced medical technologies and outpatient services rather than proceeding with the construction of additional inpatient rooms on the Lewes Campus. To learn more about these changes, and how we’re continuing to make the next generation of care a reality in Sussex County, click here: https://www.nextgenerationofcare.org/2018/06/15/healthcare-is-changing-and-so-is-beebe