Marlborough Hospital to double emergency department size amid $46M expansion

Photo I Courtesy of Marlborough Hospital A rendering of Marlborough's Hospital's expanded emergency department

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Marlborough Hospital has broken ground on an expansion project to double the size of its emergency department as the hospital works to meet the mounting needs of the community.

The expansion project will add 10 new beds to the emergency department’s existing 13, increasing its total registered bed count to 23. Furthermore, construction will add 7,000 square feet to the department, more than doubling its current 6,000 square foot size to a total of 13,000 square feet.

The ED development project will cost $36 million along with an additional $4 million allocated for a new CAT scan machine and $6 million to create a separate multidisciplinary clinic to treat chronic illnesses, bringing the total expenditures to $46 million.

The hospital hopes to see its first patient at its expanded emergency department by November 2026.

Photo | Courtesy of UMass Memorial Health

Dr. Charles Cavagnaro, president of UMass Memorial Health's Marlborough Hospital and HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital

As is, Marlborough’s emergency room is undersized for the number of patients it sees, said Dr. Charles Cavagnaro, president of Marlborough Hospital and HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, based in Leominster. Both hospitals are part of the UMass Memorial Health system, based in Worcester.

Because of this, during busy hours the facility is forced to keep an overflow of patients in hall spaces as opposed to rooms.

“That's never really a crowd pleaser for patients; and I don't blame them, and that's something we want to get away from. And that's probably the number one reason why we need to have more patient beds,” Cavagnaro said. “The impetus to actually expand the ED is actually to meet the needs of the patients.”

The hospital has experienced a stark growth in patient visits over the past five years. In fiscal year 2024, the facility had 29,831 ED visits: a 31% increase from fiscal year 2020 when it had 22,678 visits.

This fiscal year, the hospital expects another 5% increase, in part due to the closure of two emergency shelters that housed migrant families in the Marlborough area. The closures were part of the Gov. Maura Healey Administration’s decision to shutter all hotel shelters within the state.

Hospital wait times have proven a concern for Marlborough Hospital and Cavagnaro.

“The wait times are always too long. No matter where you are, the wait times are too long,” he said.

These wait times are not just due to the number of patients, he said. Factors including complexity of illnesses, when patients arrive, and how many providers on hand all contribute to the problem.

While Marlborough has seen an increase in patient volume, the facility is starting to see a small decrease in the emergency room, which is concerning rather than promising. Cavagnaro doesn’t credit this reduction to need, but rather due to patients seeking care at alternate facilities because of a lack of physical comfort at Marlborough.

“We have to provide the experience and the comfort and the size of an emergency room, etc., that's going to meet that need,” said Cavagnaro.

The concerns he has regarding patient experience are limited to these issues of comfort and capacity as opposed to patient care, he said.

“The care that's being given out in our emergency room is excellent, and I will continue to say that, because it is,” he said.

The addition of a new CT machine in the hospital’s emergency department will further ameliorate patient wait times by increasing patient flow.

Currently, the hospital only has one CT machine to serve its emergency department patients, the facility’s inpatient clients, and some outpatient clients. The new machine would be placed adjacent to the department, allowing the hospital to meet the exigencies of those walking through its doors.

The hospital’s forthcoming $6-million multidisciplinary clinic will serve as an outpatient treatment center staffed with practitioners from UMass Memorial Medical Group specializing in the treatment of chronic diseases, especially diabetes.

“Diabetic care is probably one of the most important kinds of care for the population of Massachusetts. It's affecting a large population, and really, if not taken care of properly, it can have devastating consequences over the long term,” said Cavagnaro.

The goal of the multidisciplinary clinic, he said, is to bring the care of identified illnesses that are not served in Marlborough into the region, so patients don’t need to travel to areas like Worcester or Boston.

Marlborough Hospital will soon start recruiting more employees for its multidisciplinary clinic and others the hospital hopes to open in the future, with the goal of opening in 18 months.

The hospital’s announcement of its multi-million dollar projects come as the facility prepares to merge with UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. With the merger, expected to be completed by January, Marlborough Hospital will become a campus of the medical center.

The hospital’s expansion plans are completely independent of its upcoming merger, said Cavagnaro, but they both support the hospital’s ultimate goal of doing what is necessary to provide comprehensive care to a region with growing need.

“The merger has come more from our thinking about the future of Marlborough Hospital and how best to keep it a viable campus in terms of inpatient care,” Cavagnaro said. “It became increasingly obvious to us that the future lied with the continuation of the present, but this time to actually change Marlborough from a hospital to a campus of the medical center.”

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.