Update on BID~Needham expansion

A short story by Kathryn Eident on boston.com providing an update on the expansion of our community hospital in Needham. The highlight of the renovations is a 37,000 square foot addition that will double the size of the emergency room.

As noted by one of our staff: “In a period of five years the emergency room went from 9,500 patients to over 14, 000,” she said. “It’s not just a town hospital anymore. We’ve expanded services, we’ve seen a growth in the town and the communities around us and people are getting to know us better.”

Regular readers will recall that this expansion and the bonds to finance it were opposed by SEIU, both at the town planning board and in front of MA HEFA, one of the designated public agencies for coordinating the issuance of tax-exempt bonds by schools, hospitals, and other non-profit entities in the state. Fortunately, the highly professional staff and board at MA HEFA found no merit in SEIU's arguments.

By the way, some observers want to know if there any connection between MA HEFA's failure to knuckle down to the SEIU and the current administration's plan to merge the agency with another. SEIU members monitor every meeting of the MA HEFA board, and the union has made a habit around the country of trying to block public financing for hospitals they are trying to organize.