(Feb. 23, 2017) While a bold, statewide strategy in Annapolis adopted by the Maryland Hospital Association could have paid off big for Atlantic General Hospital’s new cancer center, the local hospital ended up with about half of the requested $1.3 million and a plan to make up for the shortfall.
According to Michael Franklin, chief executive officer, AGH submitted its funding proposal through the regular funding process, which usually ends up with a share of about $5 million in total each year. During the past few years, Franklin said, participating hospitals have ended up not using all the available funding.
This led to a more ambitious request, as member hospitals’ needs grew, to nearly $9 million this year, he said.
“If it were successful it would have resulted in $1.3 million for AGH, but it resulted in a little better than half,” Franklin said.
During a press conference in Salisbury two weeks ago, Gov. Larry Hogan announced a commitment from his office of about $681,000 for AGH’s cancer center. The Regional Cancer Care Center is a proposed 18,000-square-foot facility on the hospital’s main campus at the corner of Route 113 and Old Ocean City Boulevard.
Services proposed to be included at the center include outpatient chemotherapy, hematology, general medical oncology and radiation oncology physicians, PET scanning, education and support facilities, telemedicine capabilities and a private boutique for education and supplies unique to cancer treatment patients.
Franklin said the center’s groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for July, with the facility coming online by March 2018.
“It’s enough to get started,” Franklin said. “We’re waiting until July to get it into the budget, and we can’t start until the budget is signed anyway.”
Franklin said he wouldn’t be able to reapply to the state to get this particular project funded, so the money has to come from elsewhere.
“The remainder has to come from our campaign and how we typically fund these sorts of projects,” he said.
Those mechanisms can be a little obscure, but the process is generally a two-pronged approach drawing from what Franklin calls “operational reserves” and public fundraising.
AGH is a nonprofit hospital, and so the leftover money from revenues and expenditures must go into “expanding services to the community,” Franklin said, rather than going into shareholders’ pockets. Most of the money in operational reserves comes from that source, he said.
This spring, Franklin said the cancer center would join a few other projects as the hospital launches a $10 million campaign later this spring.
“The $10 million in funding will lead us to about $35 million in investment,” he said.
Expansions of both emergency and operating room services are included in the campaign. Franklin said the fundraising effort has already been underway for private investors for a while now, and has collected between $2.5 and $3 million already.
According to Michael Franklin, chief executive officer, AGH submitted its funding proposal through the regular funding process, which usually ends up with a share of about $5 million in total each year. During the past few years, Franklin said, participating hospitals have ended up not using all the available funding.
This led to a more ambitious request, as member hospitals’ needs grew, to nearly $9 million this year, he said.
“If it were successful it would have resulted in $1.3 million for AGH, but it resulted in a little better than half,” Franklin said.
During a press conference in Salisbury two weeks ago, Gov. Larry Hogan announced a commitment from his office of about $681,000 for AGH’s cancer center. The Regional Cancer Care Center is a proposed 18,000-square-foot facility on the hospital’s main campus at the corner of Route 113 and Old Ocean City Boulevard.
Services proposed to be included at the center include outpatient chemotherapy, hematology, general medical oncology and radiation oncology physicians, PET scanning, education and support facilities, telemedicine capabilities and a private boutique for education and supplies unique to cancer treatment patients.
Franklin said the center’s groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for July, with the facility coming online by March 2018.
“It’s enough to get started,” Franklin said. “We’re waiting until July to get it into the budget, and we can’t start until the budget is signed anyway.”
Franklin said he wouldn’t be able to reapply to the state to get this particular project funded, so the money has to come from elsewhere.
“The remainder has to come from our campaign and how we typically fund these sorts of projects,” he said.
Those mechanisms can be a little obscure, but the process is generally a two-pronged approach drawing from what Franklin calls “operational reserves” and public fundraising.
AGH is a nonprofit hospital, and so the leftover money from revenues and expenditures must go into “expanding services to the community,” Franklin said, rather than going into shareholders’ pockets. Most of the money in operational reserves comes from that source, he said.
This spring, Franklin said the cancer center would join a few other projects as the hospital launches a $10 million campaign later this spring.
“The $10 million in funding will lead us to about $35 million in investment,” he said.
Expansions of both emergency and operating room services are included in the campaign. Franklin said the fundraising effort has already been underway for private investors for a while now, and has collected between $2.5 and $3 million already.