N.S. sells Hogan Court facility to Shannex
The province is selling its partially finished transitional care centre on Hogan Court in West Bedford to Shannex, which will take over renovations of the 68-rooom facility and build a 110-room addition.
Shannex started talking to the province in January about the project and will own the building once renovations are complete.
The purchase price of $46 million is more than what the province has put into the project so far. Shannex had originally been tapped to just run the programs inside the first centre, which is a former hotel.
It also means a second centre announced for Bayers Lake won’t be required now, creating an economy of scale by having everything at one site, Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompon said.
In the end, it’s about freeing up hospital beds for people with acute care needs by putting those who are waiting for home care or continuing care beds in the transitional facility.
“A shortage of available beds had a direct impact on hospital capacity, emergency department wait times and ambulance offloads,” Thompson said. “It also adds stress to patients and staff.”
She said there are hundreds of people in hospital beds who no longer need that level of care but need support or services to return home or to a different care environment.
Thompson said having Shannex take over means the first part of the project will be open months earlier than first estimates.
“Shannex has demonstrated experience in providing this level of care, and also in those types of construction projects,” she said.
The renovations to the existing building should be done by December, Shannex said, and the addition is expected to be ready by 2026.
Shannex president Jason Shannon said that transitional health care model “represents a real improvement for the future of health care that will ensure patients who would otherwise be waiting in hospital receive the right supports are they transition to a place they call home.”
He said Shannex’s sister company that does design and construction is ready to get take over the site April 1.
“We’re focused on finishing phase 1 as soon as possible, and phase 2 by April 1, 2026.”
He said that is “no small task, but we’re motivated and confident we can get the job done.”
Discussions with the province about running the transitional care facility started about a year ago, and even before the announcement last December that Shannex would be operating the program on site, the company “was looking at the possibility of taking over the building and putting on the addition,” Shannon said.
“We spent so much time with Nova Scotia Health figuring out the policies and procedures, and thought it really would work well if we could create one, true centre for excellence in one location.”
Thompson said Shannex “had a different vision than we had, and when they came to us with that unsolicited proposal, we were really pleased with the idea of having that bigger site all together.”
The total cost of the project will be released later this spring. Shannex has an existing five-year contract to provide operational services to the transitional care centre.
Shannex expects that between part-time and fulltime staff, there will be the equivalent of 50 full time registered nurses and 25 fulltime LPNS working at the centre, along with other staff.