The Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB), which oversees Vermont’s health care system, has approved UVM Medical Center’s application to buy the Fanny Allen Campus in Colchester.
UVMMC has leased the facilities since the 1990s. It now plans to pay $17.3 million for the 22-acre campus, which includes the hospital, a former convent, some condominium units and a training center building.
According to its application filed with the GMCB, UVMMC says this purchase will save about $6.1 million over the next 15 years, and that it will maintain services for patients. Among those services are rehabilitation, urgent care, radiology and memory care.
"The Board’s approval of our application should serve as reassurance to thousands of patients that they will continue to receive the care they need without interruption and reaffirms the central role this historic campus continues to play for both UVM Medical Center and patients across our region who rely on the Fanny Allen Campus for essential care,” said UVM Medical Center President and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Leffler, MD, in a written statement Friday.
UVMMC also said in its written statement that private practice physicians with offices in the Fanny Allen Medical Office Building won't be impacted by the sale, and will continue to practice in their current locations.
In its decision approving the purchase, GMCB noted there were no less-expensive alternatives to this proposal — and that by not allowing UVMMC to move forward with the purchase, there was a danger of escalating rental payments if another entity bought the property.
UVMMC has a couple other applications pending with the GMCB, including a proposed $130 million outpatient surgery center in South Burlington.
“Fanny Allen is critical to ensuring continued access to care, but it does not solve all of our needs,” Leffler said in the written statement. “Purchasing the campus is just one aspect of our long-term facilities plan, which includes major investments for new construction, as well as renovations and updates to existing Medical Center facilities.”
The GMCB has until Monday, July 29, to review the outpatient surgery center proposal.
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