In its fund-raising video for expansion and renovation of its ER and ICU, Hunterdon Medical Center features former Lambertville Mayor Frank Fuzo.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE Hunterdon Medical Center is asking local municipalities to contribute $1 per resident to help finance the expansion and renovation of its emergency room and intensive care unit.
The request is part of a $6 million fund-raising campaign that will help pay for the $10.5 million project. Robert W. Subber, chairman of the campaign and a trustee of the hospital, asked the City Council Dec. 30 to consider earmarking the funds when budget hearings are held in coming weeks.
The 2000 U.S. Census placed the city’s population at 3,868. If the City Council agrees to make a $1 contribution for each of its residents, that would mean a donation of $3,868.
Council members listened to the presentation, but made no comment. There was no one in the audience.
Mayor David Del Vecchio said after the meeting that the issue would be brought up during budget hearings in early February.
Some of the $6 million goal for the project already has been met. According to Mr. Subber, almost $1 million left over from a previous fund-raiser will go toward this project.
"Through bonds and borrowing," Mr. Subber said, the medical center came up with about $4.5 million of the total $10.5 million price tag.
He played a brief video, "Fulfilling the Vision," for council members. The title also is the name of the fund-raising campaign.
"Emergencies happen in a flash and can change lives forever," according to the video, which said the facility deals with an emergency every 20 minutes. It showed what happens to a patient, from the ambulance ride to the emergency room.
The video featured Frank J. Fuzo of Lambertville as the patient. Mr. Fuzo has suffered two heart attacks, city officials noted. Mr. Fuzo, a county freeholder, was mayor of the city from 1988 to 1991.
"About 2,000 visits in the last year were from Lambertville residents," Mr. Subber said. "Almost twice a day, somebody from Lambertville goes to the emergency room.
He explained the medical center keeps track of what municipalities its emergency-room patients hail from.
The emergency room and intensive care unit were renovated last in 1977. At the time, the emergency room was designed to handle 12,000 visits per year. The staff now treats more than twice that number annually, according to Mr. Subber. An estimate places the number of visits for 2002 at 28,000.
Almost 50 years old, Hunterdon Medical Center has undergone half a dozen expansions in the last 40 years. In the last decade, renovations touched all departments except the emergency department and the intensive care unit.
The emergency department consists of 5,820 square feet of space. The expansion would provide a total 18,2000 square feet.
Also planned for the emergency department are 14 walled treatment rooms for better patient privacy rather than the current large area partitioned only by curtains. In addition, separate entrances for ambulances and walk-in or drive-in patients are planned.
Also in the emergency department, a facility will be added to treat patients who have come in contact with bioterrorism or hazardous waste. Pediatric patients, too, will have their own separate area in the emergency department.
Like the emergency department, the intensive care unit was renovated last in 1977. Plans call for an expansion from its current size of 6,140 square feet to 9,000 square feet. Several more cardiac care beds will be added and the nursing stations will be redesigned.
"Its space is no longer adequate to house Hunterdon Medical Center’s advanced technology and to meet the needs of a growing population," according to the portfolio handed out by Mr. Subber. "The rooms themselves are almost too small to accommodate all of the sophisticated medical equipment used by the ICU to provide critical patient care."
The county’s population rose from 87,361 in 1980 to 121,989 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census.
On Jan. 21, Mr. Subber will take his presentation to the county freeholders. Lambertville is the seventh municipality he has visited in his quest to make the medical center’s appeal to local government officials.
The list of municipalities visited so far includes West Amwell, Kingwood and Alexandria townships and High Bridge. So far, none of the municipalities has given a firm commitment.
"Reactions ranged from very, very positive to lukewarm," Mr. Subber said.