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St. Vincent’s executives tell OHS panel revised master plan cites need for more operating rooms
Summary
In an Office of Health Strategy executive session, St. Vincent’s Medical Center representatives said a 2023 revised master facility plan and supporting projections show inadequate operating-room capacity, ill‑sized ORs for modern equipment and difficulty recruiting surgeons; hospital staff said scheduling delays are largely anecdotal and not tracked as total delay times.
St. Vincent’s Medical Center executives told an Office of Health Strategy executive session that a revised 2023 master facility plan identifies a need for additional operating rooms, citing inadequate capacity, several ill‑sized ORs and concerns that outdated facilities could limit the hospital’s ability to recruit surgeons for advanced procedures.
The panel reviewed portions of the confidential submission, including the strategic facilities master plan and an exhibit table in the Certificate of Need (CON) filing. Mr. Jennings, identified in the session as the hospital’s executive leader, pointed the panel to the projection table on page 157 and said the figures in the CON are the same as those in the hospital’s integrated strategic operating and financial plan. "These numbers are the same figures that are included in the integrated strategic operating and financial plan. They're one and the same," Jennings said.
Panel members asked how the plan quantified statements in the prefiled testimony that scheduling delays for nonemergent cases were "unacceptable" and caused "prolonged anxiety, pain, and suffering." Jennings acknowledged much of that evidence was anecdotal and said the hospital does not maintain records that measure total delay times in a way that would produce a precise metric for the 2023 plan. An unidentified staff member described how block scheduling and manual or automatic release of OR blocks can create delays—examples cited included waits of roughly 7–14 days when surgeons are unavailable—and said some patient harms tied to timing are difficult to quantify.
The session also clarified dates in the record: the master facility plan cover sheet shows a 11/04/2020 planning follow‑up date; Hartford HealthCare’s acquisition of St. Vincent’s was given as October 2019; and Jennings confirmed he began as executive leader on July 21 (year not specified in the exchange). The panel noted the CON exhibit includes fiscal‑year 2025 projections and that actual activity to date is outpacing the 2025 projection in the exhibit.
Panel members asked whether the underlying five‑year strategic, operational and financial plan that informed the revised 2023 master facility plan had been entered into the record; Jennings said the figures are already included in the integrated strategic operating and financial plan and characterized the documents as containing the same projections. The session concluded without a formal vote or other final action; participants planned to return to the public session after a short break to address late files and closing items.
