Orange Regional Medical Center, HBE Near Completion of First New York State Replacement Hospital in 20 Years

Seven-story replacement hospital expected to be completed in April

Orange Regional Medical Center (ORMC) is expected in April to open the doors of its new replacement hospital on a 61-acre parcel in Wallkill, NY, approximately 65 miles from Manhattan. The new 621,000-square-foot hospital, designed and built by St. Louis-based HBE Corporation, will replace Horton Medical Center in Middleton, NY and Arden Hill Hospital in Goshen, NY – both more than 40 years old. Orange Regional Medical Center represents the first free-standing replacement hospital built in New York State in more than 20 years, according to the state’s Department of Health.

Early on in the planning process, ORMC recognized that the more traditional design/bid/build approach to building a replacement hospital required funding in excess of their resources. The ORMC Board of Directors turned to experienced hospital design-build firm HBE Corporation for guidance.

“With the help of HBE, we’re now building a hospital for around $720,000 a bed versus the originally projected one million dollars a bed, which will provide us with a hospital that can serve our community for the next 50 years,” said Wayne Becker, ORMC Vice President, New Projects. “HBE has the experience we needed and everything under one roof, eliminating the finger-pointing and the professional competition, which makes them more efficient and cost effective. They’ve been especially effective for us in these tough economic times. HBE has been our success factor in creating the new ORMC.”

Based on ORMC’s original Certificate of Need, HBE is delivering a project cost savings of nearly 20 percent due, in part, to a single, guaranteed lump sum contract that eliminates redundant functions, reduces fees and standardizes the overall planning and building process. According to ORMC President and CEO Scott Batulis, “HBE saved me $100 million that I didn’t have.” The cost for architecture, engineering and construction (including site work) services on the project totaled about $195.5 million.

“ORMC was prudent and made the decision very early to begin to understand the value of their project and to compare it,” said Fred Kummer, President and CEO of HBE Corporation. “Our business model allows clients like ORMC to receive a definitive solution and a fixed cost without any contractual agreement or financial obligation on the part of the hospital. Clients have a right to demand an understanding of the relative value for their project before they commit to buying it.”

With a location and amenities to better sever the community’s needs, the new seven-story, 374-bed hospital will include: private patient rooms, emergency department, helipad, three-bay ambulance garage, advanced birthing center, spacious surgical suite, cardiac rehabilitation center, two interventional radiology rooms, bone and joint center, dedicated pediatric unit, 30 single-bed behavioral health unit, wireless healthcare information technology, electronic medical records, non-denominational chapel, healing garden, expanded cafeteria and outside dining patio. For a virtual tour, of the hospital visit http://www.ormc.org/about-us/new-hospital.aspx.