Standing in what will one day be Windham Hospitals new cancer care center, Steve Larcen predicted that the future of health care is being built on the hospitals campus.

Larcen, CEO and president of the hospital, and about 50 people celebrated a milestone in the construction of the hospitals new Windham Hospital Family Health Center by signing walls that will become part of the facade of the building. The hospital strives to excel in patient care and to be seen as a trusted source of delivering personalized coordinated care, Larcen said.

This facility will help us on every one of those points, Larcen said. That is a big predictor of the future success of Windham Hospital.

Construction of the 30,000-square-foot facility is slated for completion in the spring. The $10.3 million facility, funded in part by $8.3 million in state bond money, will house dozens of primary care physicians, medical oncologists, physical therapists and rehabilitators, laboratory workers, orthopedic surgeons and general surgeons.

Elliot Joseph, CEO and president of Hartford HealthCare, which owns Windham Hospital, said the building would not have been possible without state money. He said about 60 percent of the hospitals patients are on Medicare. The hospital is reimbursed for 87 cents of every dollar of care it delivers to those patients, he said. Another 12-13 percent are on Medicaid, and the hospital is reimbursed 67 cents for every dollar of care it delivers to Medicaid patients, Joseph said.

It would have been impossible for a hospital to build this on its own, Joseph said. We, like all community hospitals, are vital and extremely fragile assets in the community.

State Sen. Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, said state funding for the project makes sense when you consider all the benefits. In the short term, it has meant more jobs, he said. About 100 people have been employed during the construction phase. In the long term, Williams said, the building will mean quality health care for the residents of northeastern Connecticut.

What this truly represents is nothing less than saving lives, William said.

Robert Bundy, medical director of Windham Hospital, said the new building helps the hospital attract and retain top medical professionals because it represents the trend of delivering quality outpatient care. Windham Hospital has long been an epicenter of community care, he said, pointing out the variety of medical office buildings on adjacent Quarry Street.

This hospital has been delivering unconditional care for decades, he said. The focus is on the patient and offering compassionate and humanistic care. This facility allows us to do that at a time when more and more health care is being delivered in the community and on an outpatient basis.

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