Wesley CEO details early phases of $100M capital improvement plan
By Josh Heck – Reporter, Wichita Business Journal
Wesley Healthcare is committing to investing $100 million in improvements to its main hospital in the coming years.
And we now know some of the project priorities that will be part of the first phases of the large-scale capital improvement plan.
Bill Voloch, Wesley’s president and CEO, spoke with members of the media Tuesday afternoon in the wake of a Wichita City Council decision to approve industrial revenue bond financing for equipment and facility upgrades at Wesley Medical Center, 550 N. Hillside. With IRBs, the city serves as a pass-through entity for developers to obtain a lower interest rate on projects. IRBs require no taxpayer commitment. Wesley is not requesting a tax exemption on bond-financed property, however.
Voloch says roughly $26 million of the $100 million has been committed toward projects so far.
The rest, Voloch says, still has to go through “lots of planning and proposals” to HCA Inc. before they get funded. Nashville-based HCA is Wesley’s parent company.
“That’s what this $100 million is, it’s a plan for the future,” Voloch says. “It’s what we believe this organization is going to need over the next five years.”
Of the $26 million, $17 million is earmarked to further expand pediatric services offered through Wesley Children’s Hospital.
The previously announced project includes constructing a dedicated pediatric pharmacy; making room for 14 additional beds for sedation, oncology and pediatric intensive care overflow; and five private infusion bays. The plan also calls for additional dialysis beds, physician call rooms and more space for child life programs and volunteers.
Voloch says that work should begin next spring.
“We have seen such an amazing response to everything we are doing here, but especially around our children’s hospital,” Voloch says. “We’ve been able to show the need and the desire to continue to grow this service.”
Another $9 million has been committed to imaging equipment enhancements, he says.
Wesley will open an expanded intensive care unit before month’s end, a project that is adding 14 beds.
Voloch says another piece of the $100 million could be invested for another, similar-sized ICU unit. The key for that, he says, will be making the business case for the additional beds.
Voloch is confident he can make that case.
“We’re in a place right now where many days every ICU bed is full,” Voloch says. “Wichita doesn’t have enough ICU beds right now.”
These projects are the latest in a long line of capital improvements made at Wesley Medical Center. Voloch estimates $50 million to $60 million has been invested in capital improvements annually over the past five years.
“We will continue to invest in this great organization,” Voloch says.