Friday, June 6, 2025
6/6/2025
Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital (SHBH) is submitting this application in response to HRSA-23-117, Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending (CPF/CDS): Facilities and/or Equipment (“Construction”) Projects. On December 29, 2022, with the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (P.L. 117-328), SHBH was awarded $1,000,000 in CDS funding in support of its planned $6.3 million Emergency Department (ED) Modernization Project. With 52,000 visits per year, the SHBH ED is one of the busiest in the state. It is also long overdue for updating and badly in need of expansion to accommodate increasing ED admissions. In recent years, the lack of a secure holding unit in the ED has been particularly problematic, with as many as 30 behavioral health patients on gurneys lining the hallways at any given time as they wait for inpatient psychiatric beds. The centerpiece of the proposed $1 million ED Modernization Project is thus the addition of a 12-bed unit for people in crisis, which will ease overcrowding, increase patient and staff safety, and reduce the likelihood that patients in crisis will leave before they can be treated. More generally, the ED Modernization Project will enhance the ED experience for all patients and families. Alterations in the triage area will create new workflow efficiencies and reduce the time to treatment. In addition, the new ED will provide a dedicated space in the lobby for patients and family members to meet privately with staff to discuss sensitive issues, and the project will make additional clinical space available, reducing the amount of time that patients must wait in the lobby area. Plans for the SHBH ED Modernization Project began to take shape in 2020. In June of 2022, as fund-raising efforts progressed, SHBH submitted an application to Senator Edward J. Markey for an FY2023 CDS Request. At that time, $4,100,000 in non-federal funds had been committed to the project by non-federal sources. However, shortly after P.L. 117-328 was passed, on February 7, 2023, our plans for a gradual period of planning, design, and alteration/renovation of the ED were upended when the hospital experienced a 10 alarm fire. The closure of the hospital and ED since that date has posed an enormous burden on patients and other providers in our service area and compelled us to accelerate our plans to rebuild and reopen the ED as early as December of 2023 and the main hospital in the new year. The ED Modernization Project is part of a larger, $19.6 million strategic initiative, Mission Possible, to upgrade our facilities and equipment hospital-wide. Launched in 2020, Mission Possible includes the construction of a new ambulatory surgery center ($7.5 million), a modernized cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology suites ($3.8 million), and a new main lobby ($2 million). Together, these projects will position SHBH to continue to provide the same level of high-quality care and clinical excellence we have always strived to provide. In 2020, our efforts were recognized by the Washington Review, which ranked SHBH as the 6th leading Safety-Net hospital in the US, and by Leapfrog, which named SHBH as a Top Teaching Hospital for the 4th consecutive year. In our original request to Sen. Markey, we sought funds for initial construction costs. However, pursuant to the fire earlier this year, construction was begun in June of 2022. We have thus reframed our budget to focus on allowable costs, including the construction that will take place after an award is made, and reimbursement of the hospital for moveable equipment that was lost during the fire, is in need of updating, and/or will be required to equip the expanded ED. We believe that this request fully aligns with P.L. 117-328 as well as our proposal to Sen. Markey.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).