CLEVELAND, Ohio - Replacing the aging twin towers at the MetroHealth System main campus will dramatically improve patient care and sustain the future of Cuyahoga County's hospital, officials say.
MetroHealth's board of trustees voted March 22 to self-issue $1.3 billion in bonds for the project, including a parking garage, central utility plant and 12-story hospital. The building is expected to open in 2022 with 150 adult acute care beds, 96 perinatal care beds and 24 specialty unit beds.
New rooms will aid in recovery, officials said, as they did when ICU patients were moved from the towers to the new Critical Care Pavilion in July 2016. Patient experience scores skyrocketed, said spokeswoman Tina Arundel in an email.
"We didn't change our staff or our great care....this goes to show that patients and families have a better overall experience in brighter, newer facilities," she wrote.
The hospital compared data of patients who responded to a survey regarding their perception of care from January through June, when patients were in the tower, to July through December, after the new facility opened.
- Hospital environment and cleanliness improved 28.5 percent.
- Percent of patients who rated MetroHealth 9-10 improved 13.4 percent.
- Area around the room, quiet at night improved 11.7 percent.
Cuyahoga County is helping with the project. MetroHealth CEO Dr. Akram Boutros and other officials presented information to council on Tuesday describing the project and its impact.
Council considering legislation to obtain one or more letters of credit from a bank to create an $82 million debt reserve fund that otherwise Metro would have been required to establish when selling bonds.
What's in the deal?
In the deal, which required a year of negotiations, the county will spend several hundred thousand dollars a year in interest on the loan, saving MetroHealth approximately $160 million over the course of the 40-year debt.
See the PowerPoint presentation below or click here if on a mobile device.
Officials told council members of the commitment to diversity in hiring and contracts. They expect 80 percent of the workforce and 80 percent of procured goods and services for the project to be from the county.
Of all workers, 20 percent will be African-American, 10 percent Latino and 6 percent female.
The economic impact is expected to be:
- Labors hours: 4.4 million to 5 million
- Labor salaries and expenses: $352 million to $396 million
- City income tax revenues: $7 million to $8 million
- Cuyahoga County sales tax: $9 million to $13 million
- Materials and goods: $477 million to $521 million.
County fiscal officer Dennis Kennedy was unable to attend the council meeting but submitted a letter regarding the funding proposal.
He said a group of county officials discussed how to fund the $82 million debt service reserve fund and determined to obtain a letter of credit from one or more financial institutions.
Other options, including using cash reserves, were rejected, he wrote.
The county is in discussions with banks and expects to have the term sheets on pricing shortly. He wrote that "involving a consortium of lenders should minimize the impact on an individual bank's reserves and provide us with the depth of credit coverage we need to support the DSR."
Council is expected to approve the agreement in April.