A Letter to our Neighbors

To the Neighbors of Highland Hospital:

On Wednesday, July 25, Highland Hospital held a public meeting with the Highland Park Neighborhood Association to discuss a modernization plan for the hospital. As part of our ongoing efforts to keep neighbors updated on hospital development, I am writing to share the details of this plan with you.

Highland Hospital is unique for being a community hospital and a neighborhood hospital. To continue to provide the highest-quality patient care, now and into the future, we must modernize our facility. Since parts of the campus are nearly 90 years old, some patient spaces simply do not meet current industry standards for patient care.

We are proposing a project that will modernize the hospital and improve patient care, by providing private rooms for nearly all of our patients. With private rooms, our patients will benefit from the reduced risk of hospital-acquired infections, more personal space, and the positive therapeutic impact of more privacy and less noise during recovery.

Specifically, the project would add four levels with 60 private patient-care rooms to the hospital’s existing southeast wing – three floors with 20 rooms each and a fourth floor for equipment, information technology systems, and storage. These three patient-care units will allow us to shift patients currently in semiprivate rooms to private rooms.  It is important to note that this project will be completed on the existing campus, without acquiring additional land.

Part of our facility master plan, this current plan was developed as a compromise after years of discussing similar expansion plans with area neighborhood groups. We will be submitting a rezoning application with the city of Rochester in September, and we plan to begin construction in spring 2020 and to complete the project in spring 2022. As always, we will update you and other area neighbors on the project’s progress through additional community meetings, our website, and our facilities update blog.

Highland Hospital has been an integral part of the Highland Park neighborhood for  130 years. More than an important health-care resource, the hospital also is a source for thousands of local jobs. In addition, the hospital’s success has contributed to the Highland Park and South Wedge neighborhoods’ revitalization and growth, as evidenced by the steady increase in property values over the last 10 years. This modernization plan is intended to keep the hospital viable – and a contributing neighbor – for years to come.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact Maureen Malone, Director of Public Relations, at Maureen_Malone@URMC.rochester.edu or (585) 341-6210.

Sincerely yours,
 

Steven I. Goldstein                   Cindy Becker                        
President & CEO                      Vice President & COO
 

Wendy Boyce | 7/25/2018