FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 9, 2012
Contact: Jodie Grady, Marketing Manager
978-368-3902
CLINTON – At the June 4, 2012 town meeting, Clinton voters will have the opportunity to approve a relocation of a portion of Broadway Street that will provide improved access to the hospital and surrounding neighborhood, and will facilitate the construction of new Emergency Department addition. Earlier this year, the hospital announced its plans to build a state-of-the art Emergency Department and has obtained all required approvals from local land use and permitting boards after an extensive permitting process. The design contemplates that a section of Broadway Street that runs directly in front of the existing Emergency Department and connects Broadway to Highland Street will be discontinued as a public way, in order to move ahead with the project. That portion of Broadway Street, which was originally designed to provide access to residential lots, is now seldom used and the hospital owns land on both sides of the road. The article also seeks acceptance of a new public way being constructed by the hospital, which will connect Broadway Street directly with Greeley Street over the hospital’s main driveway.
“We are making some upgrades to the hospital’s main driveway in preparation for the town meeting,” said Sheila Daly, president and CEO of Clinton Hospital. “We know this new Emergency Department will go a long way in improving the health care of our community members, so we are proactively making the extra effort to bring the driveway up to the codes required of a public street in the hopes of an immediate and seamless exchange should our community members vote in favor of the transfer.”
The new Broadway Street entrance, which is proposed for acceptance and is currently under construction, has been endorsed by the Clinton Traffic Committee and Planning Board and was officially laid out for public way acceptance by the Board of Selectmen February 15, 2012.
Clinton Hospital’s proposed $15 million expansion aims to address patient access and privacy concerns by providing 15 individual treatment rooms including a four-bed observation area for patients requiring an overnight stay, and a separate, secured area for psychiatric patients who oftentimes are boarded in the hospital’s Emergency Department for extended periods of time while awaiting placement at an appropriate mental health facility. The project will also include a versatile second floor shell reserved for future growth.
“Since Clinton Hospital’s Emergency Department was built more than 20 years ago, our emergency volume has nearly doubled and our current space is no longer meeting the needs of our community,” said Ms. Daly. She explained, “Our friends and neighbors deserve this new Emergency Department. We are currently housing three patients to a room, separating them only by a curtain. This environment is not conducive to private conversations and the cramped space makes it very difficult for family members to stay by their loved one’s side. Our patients deserve more and we hope the townspeople will show their support of a new Emergency Department by attending the town meeting on June 4 to vote in favor of the road transfer that will allow us to move forward with this project.”