Hospital Replacement Urged

[ Total, sfflgfe-projecfceplacement of i the mam University Hospital and four otner hospital units is now being cónsidered by the U-M Hospital Planning Committee if a proposed $140 million statewide bond referendum is approved bv the voters. I Previously working on a phased replacement approach, the committee will [ noy study the total replacement approach as a result of encouragement from the Michigan Legislature. It will present its recommendations by the end of the year, according to a U-M spokesman. The U-M Board of Regents put its stamp of approval on the total, single project approach study at its meeting here Friday. Units to be replaced would include the mam hospital, the hospital's surgery wing the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), a hospital unit for emotionally disturbed adults, the Nprth Outpatient Building (former Veterans Rehabilitation Center), and the Interns Quarters. The main hospital would be retained and used for offices now housed in the University Terrace Apartments and in rented space around town, as well as for classrooms and medical support lies. the new strpSfe or structures rL placing the five units would be built on a different site. Among possible sites being considered are areas to the east of the present hospital m back of it in space now taken up with parking lots, or possibly the site of the present St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Other possible sites will be considered' the spokesman said. Expansión of the Outpatient Building the Simpson Memorial Institute (leukemia research building), and the Lloyd Pavihon (radiation therapy unit) will be consriered, as will their renovation along with that of the Women's Hospital and Children's Psychiatrie Hospital. Concerns over the rising costs of hospital construction, inflation, as well as pressing physicai deficiencies in the hospital mam unit have prompted consideration for total replacement as an alternative to phased construction over a longer penod of time, according to Jeptha W ■ Dalston, director of U-M Hospital. Prior to the current decisión by the regents authorizing a study of total replacement, phasing the multi-million dollar project was considered because of expected difficulties of financing the construction, Dalston said. "Initiálly hospital planners believèd that phasing or staging the replacement of Main Hospital was the more viable approach to reaching our goal," said Dalston. In the interim the altérnate plan of total replacement oí the hospital unit was given Ímpetus when prospects of a statewide bond referendum totaling $140,000, 000 developed. ■ - , "The prospects of a new approach to financing the project make it now necessary for us to examine total replacement as an essential part of our planning proc-. ess," Dalston said. According to Dalston, serious obsolescence of the U-M Hospital main unit was documented in a building condition study commissioned by the state in 1971 Recommendations of that study included the replacement of the Neuropsychiatric Institute, North öutpatient Building Intern's Quarters, the, Main Unit and s'urgery wing of the Hospital. Two years after the evaluation study of the buildings in the total Medical Center was completed, Hospital officials were authorized by Public Act 193 to evalúate a phased replacement of certain units, and planning proceeded on the basis of this authorization. The possibility of a bond referendum, plus mounting space deficiencies,' changing medical programs and technological j demands, as well as deterioration of utility systems serving the U-M Medical Center urge more immediate solution to the Hospitai's problems, Dalston noted. "Oui; evaluations have convinced usthat a phased solution to these problems may not serve the best interests of our patients and our students, and we are now encouraged by the possibility of a bond referendum as a method of financing our project," Dalston said. "If funds do become available through the successful passage of the referendum, I believe we have a responsibility to make the most efficiënt and immediate use of them to correct our deficientes," he added. I