WORCESTER—UMass Memorial Health Care is moving forward with plans to convert the former Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center into a hospital building.
The healthcare system is scheduled to present its renovation plans for 378 Plantation St. to Worcester’s Planning Board Wednesday.
Beaumont first started moving out nursing home patients at the end of March 2020 so the space could be used for recovering COVID-19 patients, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Both UMass Memorial Medical Center and the state requested the use of the space during the pandemic, the medical center said in a statement at the time.
In August 2021, UMass acquired the $23.5 million property as part of a larger plan that existed before the pandemic to add 200 medical beds to the UMass Chan Medical School campus, the Worcester Business Journal reported. The location of the former nursing home is across the street from the university campus.
Renovating the approximately 78,000 square-foot former nursing home and adding more than 14,000 square feet will give UMass Memorial an additional 72 inpatient, acute care hospital beds, according to documents it submitted to the Planning Board.
“The new inpatient beds will be instrumental in improving access for high acuity patients from the city of Worcester and other Central Massachusetts communities,” UMass Memorial Health Care President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson wrote in the documents.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her work has been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
